


Not Just a Vacation

by sinspiration



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Autistic Heero Yuy, M/M, Multi, Oh Dear, Sexual Assault, Slow Burn, Threesome - M/M/M, okay uh, that's the OMC part, the embryonic stages of a relationship, this is being unburied and reposted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 16:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinspiration/pseuds/sinspiration
Summary: Duo and Heero have to go undercover at a private high school to get close to the son of Archie Bravewater, a man who might have major ties to an underground slave-ring the Preventors have been trying to destroy for months.They're expecting Trowa to be their third and back-up reserve. But something comes up in Australia that he can't leave. They get Wufei instead.During the course of the mission the three not only navigate their assignment, but their developing friendships and, eventually, even deeper feelings.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hahaha...hi. Oh wow. It has been a long time since I've been in this fandom. But I found this fic and remember that I liked it, so I decided to dust it off and post. Chapters will go up as I edit them, but be warned: the story is unfinished and I don't know if it will ever get there, once I catch up to where I left off.

“Hey, Harvey, wait up!” Duo ran up to the blond and slung an arm around his shoulder. “That test was killer,” he groaned. “I hate English.”

 

Harvey chuckled. “It wasn’t that bad. Just a couple of symbolism questions.”

 

“I know, I know, but I  _ hate _ that, man.” Duo flapped his free arm. “The whale represented the journey of perusal, the crew represented loyalty, the harpoon represented—I dunno, a phallic something…and everyone dying means you get screwed in the end.” He paused. “Actually, put it like that and it sounds one step away from an early-coming out book. Man! Should’ve put that on the test!”

 

Harvey let out another laugh. “I’m pretty sure our teacher’s going to skin you alive even without that addition.”

 

“Awesome! Think so?”

 

“Max, don’t you want to do  _ well _ here? That’s the whole point of your program you know.”

 

“I know, I know.” Duo grinned. “You don’t have to get all righteous on me. English just isn’t my strong point, y’know? I write how I talk.” He stretched, finally dropping his arm from Harvey’s shoulder. “Besides, I’m doing the exchange for the business section, remember? Inheriting the family conglomerate just like you. S’why I’m more math and people minded.”

 

The conversation continued as the two headed to their lockers and collected their things.

 

“I’ll catch you tomorrow?” Duo said, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

 

“Well yeah,” Harvey grinned. “Being the resident partner to an exchange student generally means working with said exchange student.”

 

“Ah, you know you love me. Would you rather have gotten Greg? He’s nice, but you seem like a guy who likes having conversations.”

 

“Point. Hey,” Harvey shut his locker. “How is the third student doing? Is he still sick?”

 

Duo hunched over. “Yeah. Don’t know how long it’ll take before he’s able to travel.”

 

“He’s already missed the first week of the semester. I hope he’s better soon,” Harvey said, and Duo knew he meant it. Harvey was a good guy.

 

“Yeah, me too. See you later.”

 

“Bye.”

  
  


-

  
  


Duo jogged towards the parking lot, then doubled-back when he caught the little slip of red paper near the science lab door. It was Heero’s signal for “meet me in the library” and he only used it when what he needed to say was so urgent it couldn’t wait for a more secure environment, or when what he had to say didn’t require a more secure environment. They’d only been in position a week and he’d already used it twice. Though both times had been--

 

He opened the doors to the library, cased it as he walked in. Habit. Heero’d be waiting in one of the study rooms near the back, and that’s where Duo headed.

 

Heero looked up as Duo swung the door open. “Hey, Greg,” Duo said easily. 

 

“Max,” Heero replied. Even alone, it was better to continue to use code names in public. Habit. “Thanks for coming.” 

 

“No problem.” Duo shut the door and sat down all business. “What’s up?”

 

“Received an email from home today. Checked during lab.” Heero shook his head. “Travis’s situation is too delicate. He can’t travel. Instead the program is sending in another student. They warned us ahead of time since we’ll need to get used to living with someone else now.”

 

Duo translated their school-code as Heero talked. Okay, so headquarters called and Trowa can’t come ‘cause of that thing in Australia that needed attention  _ really _ needed attention and they had his priority. Instead they were getting another person, someone who had to look young enough to fit into being a high school Junior, so probably a rookie. Warning ahead of time because the mission couldn’t be compromised—they’d have to work around the newbie. Great.

 

“Any word on who it is? Ken, maybe? He was hoping for a chance with this program too.” Quatre’d be better than some rookie, that was for sure.

 

Heero shook his head. “No, he’s not eligible. Qualification issues.” Quatre was too qualified. Also too public. Duo’d known that, but it’d been worth a hope.

 

“Great,” Duo said. “Well, at least we know a little in advance. I’m not looking forward to living with someone who doesn’t know the ropes.” Pilots had problems living with people who weren’t pilots. It was a mindset thing. Some people made the grade, sure, but a green rookie who had to be young probably wasn’t going to cut it. “When’s he coming to the house?”

 

Heero let out a tiny sigh, and Duo’d been proud of the expression if it hadn’t meant what it did. “Tonight.”

  
  


-

  
  


They walked to the house together, inside with the doors locked before doing any more speaking. It was a nice place, considering. Small, but furnished, clean, certainly enough for the batches of three exchange students that cycled through it every semester. Two floors, the main one having a small kitchen, living room, and a tiny room and bath in the back. The second floor had the two bedrooms with a bathroom between then and a study off to the side. Both Heero and Duo had done separate sweeps of the whole house upon arrival. For the cover they had, they were…content with the security.

 

Duo tossed his bag down and flopped onto the couch. “Man, I thought I was done with this stuff after having it all drilled into my head during the war. Papers, history,  _ math problems _ . Heero, aren’t you, like,  _ insulted _ by the homework they give in computers?”

 

Heero shrugged and sat down in the chair across from Duo, taking out a notebook. “It isn’t difficult work.”

 

“Yeah, it’s  _ boring _ .”

 

Heero shrugged again.

 

“Hey man, come on, talk to me. What’d I say about expressing opinion?”

 

Heero managed to look mildly incredulous. “We’ve had this same conversation since we started getting homework. I don’t understand the point of complaining about work that has to be accomplished regardless of personal feeling.” He paused, then added, “work that isn’t a problem to complete.” Not hurting people who didn’t deserve it.

 

“Yeah…” Duo let the conversation go, switched to a new topic. “So when’s the rookie supposed to get here? I wanna know how long I’ve got to prep my walking-on-eggshell routine.”

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

“You know—the newbie’s gotta have been told who we are. So either we’re legends and he’s in awe, or we’re evil robots and he’s terrified.” Duo waved a hand. “Either way, he’ll be walking on eggshells and I need to have time to prepare my patience for that.”

 

“Oh, I see.” Heero went back to his work, satisfied with Duo’s explanation. “The time wasn’t clear, but it shouldn’t be before evening. I doubt they’d send in our third member so soon after the school day ended.”

 

The doorbell rang.

 

“…you think it’s the mail, or that you just got proven wrong?” Without waiting for an answer, Duo bounced off the couch and headed for the door. “Okay kid, nice to mee---eee…. _ Wufei _ ?”

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Wufei replied in a deadpan, even he was alone and at their  _ door  _ what—why-- “My name’s Aaron Li, I’m the third exchange. Can I come in?”

 

“Hey, yeah! Heer—Greg! Come and—oh forget it, just come in so we can talk.” So saying, Duo stepped aside, waited the second it took Wufei to properly enter the house, then slammed the door shut. “Come on, come on into the living room. Man—I can’t tell you how happy I am it’s you. Thought it’d be some green kid who was still learning how to shoot a BB. Heero!  _ Wufei _ is here.”

 

“I think he can see that for himself, Maxwell.” Wufei replied, having followed Duo into the living room. He inclined his head slightly. “Yuy.”

 

Heero responded in kind. “Chang.”  There was just the slightest of hesitations, and then, “It is…good to see you.”

 

A faint look of surprise flitted across Wufei’s face for the barest hint of a second, then was gone. Duo made a note to remember that; Heero would have noticed and probably’d ask about it later. Also it was important regardless.

 

The fact that Wufei was here at all was a surprise. Out of all the pilots, he was the one most removed from the others. He’d thrown himself into Preventer work, taking top missions, normally solo, or training new recruits. Apparently he was quite the taskmaster, but the agents that managed to finish his program almost seemed to fly through rank. According to Quatre, king of learning office gossip –even as a part-time Preventer, Wufei’d built himself quite an adept, loyal group, even if he was the only one who hadn’t noticed. But that still didn’t explain why he was  _ here _ .

 

“Hey, so…I thought you were primarily in training,” Duo said, interrupting the silence. “What happened?”

 

“The youngest person, aside from me, who’d even possibly be remotely qualified to work with you two is in her early twenties,” he replied, looking as if he wished it wasn’t true. “And Sally’s busy training to become certified, remember? It was me or one of the three new baby-faced recruits that would have Heero pointing his gun at them after the first day.” 

 

Duo held up his hands. “Believe me, we aren’t complaining! What’d they tell you?”

 

Wufei sighed and finally sat down on the very end of couch, turning to both face Duo and Heero and possibly to distance himself as well. He rubbed at his face, looking…tired. “Not much. I came here direct after an eight-hour flight. The Australia issue was so sudden they didn’t know they’d have to pull me off base so fast. I’ve got general directives but, and I quote, ‘they’ll be able to fill you end, Duo’s already got Shinigami in the wings.’ End quote.”

 

“No sweat! So?”

 

Wufei sighed again, and Heero and Duo exchanged a look; the state he seemed to be in, a less disciplined person would have been sagging. “I’m Aaron Li, son of Yu Wei Li, a large-name publisher. I’m here on the exchange for the opportunities to be learned from their Literature and Business program, as well as to begin potential networking. I’m here to take the place of Travis Lions, who was to be in the same program but unfortunately fell too ill to travel.” Wufei glanced from Heero to Duo, then continued. “I’m living in the community house, a facility supplied by the exchange program I’m taking part in. My housemates are a one Max Wells,” he rolled his eyes, “in the Business program, and Greg Kimura in Science and Mathematics. As for my objective, all I got was ‘blend in, support the overall cover, be in high school, and possibly act as extraction back-up if things go wrong.’ I trust you can explain further than that.”

 

Duo laughed. “Yeah, I think there’s a little more you need to know.” 

 

Heero nodded. “It seems you are under informed. Do you know the purpose of the assignment?”

 

Wufei scowled and shook his head. “No. They sent me in blind because routing the rest of the objectives would have taken too long and possibly would have compromised security. I’m supposed to count on you two to fill me in.” So  _ do _ it was left unsaid.

 

“Okay, okay. It’s really not a big deal,” Duo started. “I’m surprised they even bothered to send in the three of us.”

 

“They needed people young enough,” Heero said. “One for bait, one for back-up and extraction if need be. A two-person mission, but it would be foolish to try and have us work around a third innocent. It makes sense for all three of us to be here.”

 

“Yeah, I know. Sorry Heero—that was meant as a conversation starter.”

 

“Oh.” A pause. “I apologize.”

 

“Nah, don’t worry about it!” Duo waved that away, ignoring the fact that Wufei was watching the conversation with something close to incredulity. “Input’s good. Anyway. Wu-man—“

 

“Wufei.” Not too taken aback then.

 

“Wufei,” Duo corrected. “Mission’s simple.” He reached across the arm of the couch and opened the bottom drawer of the end table, snagging a small envelope. “Archie Bravewater,” he said, holding up a picture of a man. Wufei assessed it. Tall, dark-haired, probably mid-forties, relatively fit, had a gleam that looked like he came from wealth. “He’s the heir and current president of Brave Inc. a company that specializes in high-tech security systems for high-paying agencies. The Preventers have reason to believe that he isn’t very…discriminating on who he’ll work with. Consequently, it’s possible that he might have inside information on both the WER and the ATCO facilities.”

 

“The chance of him being involved in WER is about sixty percent,” Heero put in. “ACTO approximately ninety percent.”

 

Wufei did react to that. WER was an underground almost-mafia group that had been spreading whispers of weapons and revolt. ACTO was the center of a slave-trade the Preventers had been working on finding and destroying for the last four months. “I assume there’s a reason ACTO is so high?”

 

“He was observed coming from what could have been transactions,” Duo said darkly, “but we weren’t able to take him in since the evidence wasn’t concrete. We do, however, have reason to suspect he was also involved in a kidnapping. That’s one of the ways I come in.”

 

Wufei’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”

 

Duo held up another picture, this time of a young man in his teens. Curly blonde hair, blue eyes, big grin—could’ve rivaled Duo. “Richard Wolf, age 17, former exchange student focusing in Business—he was one of the three we’re replacing. Disappeared three weeks ago after a visit to the Bravewater household. Turned up a week later with heavy bruising, marks, and scratches concentrated on the wrists, throat, and hips and drugged to the gills.” Duo’s voice had taken on the easy, detached tone he had developed for delivering news he found distasteful. “He’s currently home and hospitalized, purging the stuff in his system and still lapsing in and out of consciousness. We  _ greatly suspect _ ol’ Archie had something to do with this, as he has a documented record of admiring young males, most recently several different exchange students, though this is the farthest the suspected liaison has gone. I fit the description of the kids he normally goes after.”

 

“By ‘goes after’--?”

 

“Nothing as bad as Richard, but there have been whispers about him. He used to do volunteer coaching on the side, for instance, and was politely but firmly removed from the position two years ago, no reasons given.”

 

“And this hasn’t been taken in before  _ why _ ?”

 

Duo smiled. “He’s rich, relatively powerful, people are scared. And one more reason.” He flipped up a final picture. “Harvey Bravewater, 18, resident and senior in the school, son of one Archie Bravewater. Mother died when he was six, raised by his dad and the community and he’s their darling. Top in academics, baseball and soccer star, volunteers, community points up the wazoo. And get this,” he paused. “He’s really not a bad guy. More on that later. Anyway, yeah, the community loves Harvey, doesn’t want to get his dad mixed up in anything. But the Preventers do.” And then Duo started  _ smiling. _

 

“Since he’s 18, he’s got all the rights of an adult here, including being able to give us permission as well as access to all his father’s files. Not only does that mean we wouldn’t have to dig past red tape, but we’d also have a bigger chance of catching files that daddy dearest hides when the cops come around with a warrant. Except Harvey’s loyal to his father. Sooo, we need a way for him to come around and see for himself what a dick his dad is.”

 

By this time Wufei had started putting two and two together. “You’re bait.” Back to deadpan.

 

“Yup!” The smile was turning feral. “Each exchange student gets assigned a mentor/helper to show them around the school and explain classes, give them tips and whatnot. Harvey’s mine. My job’s to get him to like me enough for a house invite. They’re a pretty private family. Apparently Harvey hangs out all the time with people, but only three or four have ever really been invited home in the last few years, of which Richard was one. I get into the house, Bravewater spies me. In a perfect world he’d be dumb enough to actually try something then and there so Harvey’ll catch us and then be ready for when the Preventers show up the next day requesting permission to investigate. World isn’t so perfect, so it’ll probably take some seducing on my part to get Archie to approach me, possibly more than one encounter before he feels secure enough to molest me while Harvey has the opportunity to catch us. The hitch is that since this program only lasts a semester, I’ve got just over three months to make it work.”

 

Duo kinda felt sorry for Harvey, really. The kid  _ was  _ a good guy, and it was going to shatter his world when he found out his father’s true colors. Duo’d almost had some qualms about the whole pushing-things-along-with-seduction bit, but hey—if Bravewater was  _ clean _ then he wouldn’t get pulled in. The fact that headquarters were so sure this plan would work was already more than a few nails in his coffin.

 

“You will be having a class or two with Harvey,” Heero added. “Trowa’s curriculum shared a math class and one literature class, in order for all of us to observe Harvey just in case we also were needed for interaction.”

 

By this point Wufei was wearing an out-and-out scowl, but it looked like he had tamped down what he wanted to say. “Fine,” was all he was able to bite out. “It does look as if my mission really is to ‘blend in and go to high school’. My things were delivered ahead of me, while you were at school along with my schedule. Excuse me.” Without another word, he headed to the tiny first floor bedroom. How he knew that one was his…that was Wufei for you.


	2. Chapter 2

Wufei was up early the next morning, giving himself a good two hours before he’d even have to start getting ready for school. The night before had been spent unpacking, studying his schedule and textbooks, and memorizing the layout of the house as well as adding his own sensors to the building, on top of Duo and Heero’s additions. Trying to keep busy, keep distracted, keep himself from thinking.

 

Now he was up early with nothing but time  _ to _ think. He needed to calm himself, get ready to enter the mindset of a normal teenager, albeit a hard-working one. Starting on his forms he focused on the moves, wanting to save his thoughts for meditation, hoping to banish them by then.

 

It didn’t work. An hour later he was sitting on the floor, calm by all appearances but raging inside.  _ This _ was his purpose?  _ This _ was so urgent that he had to abandon his new team-training schedule? Of course Bravewater needed to be stopped and caught—the man was scum, that wasn’t the issue. But any dolt fresh into the Preventers and barely trained in subterfuge could play this part easily. Go to school, don’t draw attention to yourself. He wasn’t needed—Duo had  _ Heero _ as back-up! The very thought that he’d been shoved into a busy-work mission frustrated and infuriated him.

 

A sudden thought crossed his mind and he nearly growled. Sally’d been harping on Une to force him into taking a vacation. A “real” vacation. He wondered if... 

 

That…explained everything, actually.

 

Pushing the feelings on that revelation aside, Wufei forced calm into his mind. Alright fine, he was stuck here, on a busy-work mission as cover for a vacation, while Duo and Heero actually worked. He wasn’t happy about it, but he could make the best of it. Going to school again, even a high school, had its own advantages. He hadn’t been able to take proper classes since before the war began, and wouldn’t mind, in truth, a good literature class or two. His mind wouldn’t be tested like it was on the field, but at least this mission might help him awaken rusty skills. And of course there would be no reason to slack in his own training; if he swallowed his doubts and asked Heero to spar with him, he’d be kept sharp in that area as well.

 

At least he had a plan now, even if he was still smarting over essentially being assigned a mission to be useless. Calmer, Wufei sunk into deeper meditation until Duo galloping down the stairs alerted him that it was time to begin preparing for his first day of school. He almost smirked at the thought. How ludicrous.

  
  


-

  
  


It was surreal to enter the kitchen and see Duo and Heero in jeans and t-shirts chatting over breakfast. Well, Duo was chatting, Heero occasionally offering up a monosyllabic comment or a rare full sentence. It still seemed so normal. Wufei wasn’t used to normal anymore. 

 

He entered, squashing his hesitation in the process, face carefully blank. Both ceased conversation and turned to him as he sat down at the table.

 

“Hey Wufei! Know you didn’t get just get up. Meditating? Did you eat yet?”

 

“Good morning, Wufei.”

 

Wufei cut off his short answer to Duo and stared at Heero in something  _ almost _ akin to bewilderment. Yes, he hadn’t had contact with the former ‘perfect soldier’ anytime recently, and Quatre’s constant-and-often-ignored updates had mentioned something about them all adapting to their new lives, but still. Yuy had never been one for wasting words.

 

Heero stared back calmly…assessing? and replied, “Duo has been helping to instruct me in social interaction. I understand that my own abilities were a weakness, especially now.” He paused, weighing words. “I am…trying to understand.”

 

Wufei frowned, hiding that he was taken aback. “I did not require an explanation.”

 

“I know. As mentioned, I am learning.”

 

Duo piped up again then, relieving Wufei of having to come up with an answer. “Hey, so, you went to your room before we could talk over code. It’s a decent-sized school for being private and snooty, so me an’ Heero’ve gotten creative with signals.”

 

Wufei nodded. Back to work. Much better. He knew how to deal with work. The mission, especially his small part in it, was the least of his worries when he had to look forward to Duo and Heero off-duty in the downtime, with only high school homework to keep everyone occupied.

 

Heero slid a floor-plan of the school for Wufei to examine. “Be sure that even though you memorize it, you’re a new student,” he said. “Apparently new students get lost.” The way he phrased the remark was the only reason Wufei didn’t get irritated; it seemed like information the other teen genuinely felt the need to mention. He glanced to Duo, who smirked. 

 

“’Greg’ here surprised his assigned guide on the first day by knowing how to get to every class, no problem. They believed one of us had the photographic memory for it, not to mention that Heero speaks like a savant anyway, but I think it’d be suspicious if you got it in one too.” 

 

Heero was frowning. Obviously he didn’t like that he’d made such a mistake.

 

With a noncommittal shrug, Wufei handed the floor plan back. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

 

The conversation turned to the various codes and signals for relaying information in plain sight, as well as the conversation codes they’d be using if they needed to speak about delicate information in public. Duo then jokingly brought up the proposition that Wufei pick his school subject to be “bad” at.

 

“You are not serious.”

 

“Course I am! Even the most perfect student ever has that one thing they’ve got to try a little harder in. I’m gonna be pulling a C in English all semester, and Heero said he might even be willing to compromise in his foreign language.” He grinned wide and the faintest of twitches pulled at Heero’s mouth too.

 

“Duo suggested occasionally ‘messing up’ in my French class by replacing my vocabulary with other vocabulary. He seemed to think the humor would stem from using proper conjugation and a perfect accent coupled with making sentences nonsensical to needlessly complicated. It seems to be working; my teacher is unsure of what to make of it.”

 

“I…see.” He thought about it. Anything in English or Literature was out, since not only was he supposed to be exceptional in those classes anyway, but it would be close to physically painful to make a mockery of the written word when it was undeserving. Heero had already claimed language, and athletics simply weren’t a possibility; it would be too much of a strain to be a poor athlete—they’d already have to reign their abilities in to match high school level The only things left were science or… “Mathematics, then,” he said. “If you are so sure this is necessary.”

 

“Awesome!” Duo said. “I didn’t think—“ he cut himself off mid-sentence. “Come on guys, we should probably head out.” He looked meaningfully to Wufei. “Since it’s your first day and all, we should get there early.”

 

With a shrug Wufei pushed away from the table and stood, leaving the room to grab his backpack. He just barely caught Heero asking, “Explain why you—“ and the reply, “I’ll tell you in a second.”

 

Ignoring the exchange, he went to the front door to wait for them.

  
  


-

  
  


His guide was sick. The flu or something just as bad—the principal had apologetically made it clear that Wufei would not be getting trained guide for his first day. A replacement would be happy to help tomorrow, but for now he was on his own.

 

“Good thing you memorized that floor plan,” Duo whispered under his breath. Out loud he said, “Sir, I think Aaron and I are in first period together. Isn’t that right?”

 

Wufei made a show of nodding. “Yes. We share first–period math.”

 

Duo turned the full force of his grin on the principal. “Harvey can do crash-course in explaining things, sir. He’s usually early anyway, and I don’t think he’d mind at least giving Aaron some pointers about the school.”

 

“Yes, yes, that’s fine.” The principal let them go without another word, happy to just have a solution.

 

“Looks like you’ll get to meet Harvey a little sooner than you planned, Aaron.” Duo said, clapping Wufei on the shoulder. 

 

Wufei rolled his eyes.

 

“I’ve got English first period,” Heero said. “I’ll see you…later.” He nodded as if bracing himself to face another day of normal interaction, then turned and walked away without waiting for a goodbye. Both Wufei and Duo watched him go.

 

“Poor guy,” Duo whispered. “He’s really having a tough time of it.”

 

“It’s hard to mingle with people when you’re too busy thinking of ways they’ll need protection should something go wrong.” It was out of his mouth before he thought to stop it. Pressing his lips tight, Wufei glared at Duo as if daring him to comment.

 

To his surprise, Duo only looked back, expression completely unguarded. “Yeah,” he said. “You understand too.” 

 

The look was gone in a heartbeat, replaced by a familiar grin. “Come on, Aaron, class time!”

 

“We’re fifteen minutes early,” Wufei protested as Duo grabbed his arm and tugged him through the empty halls.

 

“Yeah, but we’ll need the time. Got a lotta explaining to do, remember?”

 

Wufei let himself be dragged towards class, voicing protests a lot softer than he normally would. When they finally reached their room, Duo flung open the door and continued to manhandle him inside.

 

“Max, let me  _ go _ , I don’t—“ he stopped when he realized that they weren’t alone in the class. A tall blond teen had been taking books out of his bag, but had looked up when they entered. Now he was watching them, a little confused, but ready with a smile. It was easy enough to recognize Harvey Bravewater from the picture Wufei had seen the night before.

 

“Max, hey,” Harvey said. “Who’s this?” His eyes had slid to Wufei, and his voice had gotten softer. With a shock Wufei realized that Harvey probably thought he was  _ shy _ , what with going quiet and wide-eyed upon seeing him. Inwardly he scowled. That would have to get corrected now or he’d be forced to play the shy kid for however long the stupid mission lasted.

 

He started to open his mouth to snap his name when Duo beat him to the punch. “Oh, this is Aaron Li. Travis ended up being to sick to come at all. Aaron’s taking his place in the Literature program.” He smiled, and Wufei was instantly wary of the mischievous twinkle he saw in Duo’s eyes. He wasn’t planning on—“He’s kind of quiet. Didn’t talk much when he got in last night either. I think he’s shy.”

 

Oh that was  _ it _ . “I’m right  _ here _ ,” Wufei said hotly, shrugging out of Duo’s grip on his shoulders.

 

Both Duo and Harvey grinned. Wufei scowled. No wonder the two got along so well.

 

Harvey seemed to take pity on him and changed the subject. “I’m Harvey,” he said, coming closer and holding out a hand. “Max’s guide, but I’m sure he’s already told you that.”

 

Wufei took the hand a shook it. “Aaron, as Max said.” A small smile broke out as he continued, “He really does like to talk, doesn’t he?” Wufei rubbed his shoulder. “And grab people.”

 

“Hey!”

 

Both Wufei and Harvey ignored the outburst. “Where’s Keesha?” Harvey asked, finally noticing that Wufei was lacking a guide.

 

“The principal said she was sick,” Duo told him, before Wufei could answer. “Maybe what Travis has. I think something’s going around.”

 

“What, so he left you to yourself?” Harvey sounded indignant. Duo really hadn’t been kidding when he said the kid was a good guy.

 

He shrugged. “For today. Max said you could give me some pointers though, since we all have our first class together.”

 

“Oh yeah! Sure, of course. I still think I have some of the extra hand-outs I brought for Max…” Harvey went back to his bag and started pulling out papers. “You want to sit on my other side today?” he asked, looking up at Wufei and gesturing to the desk to the left of his own. “I’d be happy to help you follow the class, since you missed a week and all.”

 

Fighting down a sigh, Wufei managed to make himself nod and sound grateful. “I’d…appreciate that,” he said. Then he took a breath and, determinedly not looking at Duo, continued, “…math isn’t my best subject.”

 

Even though he’d been avoiding it on purpose, Wufei  _ still _ managed to catch a glimpse of Duo’s sudden,  _ blinding _ grin.

 

\- 

 

Wufei sighed and swung his bag up onto his shoulder. The day was only half over and while it hadn’t been terrible it hadn’t been anything else either. Pretending to be less than stellar at math had been an unusual backwards challenge, but Harvey doing his best to be so helpful just got irritating after a while. There was only so many times a person could mess up the same type of problem on purpose before he just felt stupid for having to continually misinterpret the formula. And Duo had been having a field day watching it all when he hadn’t been directing Harvey’s attention towards himself.

 

Then had been Chemistry, Chinese –and as if  _ that _ wasn’t a throwaway class, and Ancient History though admittedly, that last class had been mildly interesting. Now he was headed to gym, followed by lunch, and it’d be a lie to say he wasn’t looking forward to the break. 

 

Wufei got to the gym without any problems and dropped his bag in a corner. He looked around warily at the other people in class, eyes widening when he met a familiar stare. 

 

Well, well. So he was sharing a gym class with Heero, was he? Wufei felt his lips quirk. Maybe this would be interesting after all.

 

Heero seemed to have had the same thought. He gave Wufei a tiny nod, and then they both waited in silence while the coach entered and barked the period’s activity.

 

Dodgeball.

 

The two ex-pilots locked eyes again, silently agreeing to the challenge. Heero flicked his eyes quickly over their classmates.  _ Rivalry only, _ the look was saying, Wufei understanding perfectly.  _ Cushion the throws to those who can’t handle them. _ Wufei raised an eyebrow, continuing the unspoken communication.  _ Of course, Yuy. I’m not an idiot.  _ Then the smirk again.  _ Let’s show them how it’s done _ . And it may have been a trick of the light, but it almost looked as if Heero had smirked back.

 

They were divvied into teams with the efficiency in-born in all gym coaches, Wufei and Heero on opposing sides of sixteen. Two crates of soft beanbags were dumped into the neutral center of the gymnasium, then the starting whistle was blown and chaos erupted in the form of scrabbling for ammunition.

 

Wufei hung back, taking it easy, just keeping out of the way and observing, completely unsurprised when he saw Yuy doing the same. The other teen was moving around his teammates, a projectile in each hand, but he was doing little more than getting out of the way.

 

After a few seconds of observation, Wufei came to the conclusion that playing with being able to catch just made the game easier. He sought out Yuy’s eyes again and nodded towards the teens who were leaping around instead of trying to catch the beanbags. There was a pause of uncertainty where Wufei wasn’t sure whether or not Heero had understood the message. Then the other ex-pilot’s lips had quirked the tiniest bit as he took careful aim and  _ threw _ , Wufei just barely managing to spin out of the way in time.

 

Mission  _ definitely  _ accepted.

 

-

  
  


“Aaron!” Who…? Oh, it was Ryan something. Looked like he and Harvey were friends. He’d been in gym, Wufei remembered. “I didn’t know you guys knew each other,” he said, talking to Harvey. Turning back to Wufei, Ryan finished, “You were ridiculous in gym, man! I didn’t know Kimura had that in him! What, was he just taking it easy with us?”

 

“What happened?” Harvey asked, curious.

 

Wufei ducked his head so that no one would catch his glare. He would have avoided this interaction completely if he’d been allowed to eat by himself, but no, Duo had to point him out and by the time Harvey started to wave him over too, well…  _ So much for not getting attention.  _ “Nothing,” he mumbled. “It—we just played dodgeball.”

 

But Ryan wasn’t done. “What, are you kidding?” To the rest of the table he said, “Those two were playing their own game, I’m telling you. I swear Aaron, I bet you could do a backflip if you tried.” Wufei flinched. He’d purposely kept the gymnastics to a minimum. Duo was staring at him with a grin growing wider with every sentence Ryan was saying too, and that wasn’t helping _. _ “So yeah, interesting show after everyone got out and just those two left. And no one lost either—coach called it even cause the period was almost over and they were still at it.” He turned back to Wufei. “You in any teams?”

 

“No.”

 

“We’re only here for the semester, Ryan, remember?” Duo added. “We can’t even if we want to be.”

 

Wufei scrabbled for a subject change and found it with Heero’s absence. He’d lost track of him during the stampede to lunch. “Where  _ is  _ Greg?”

 

“He usually spends his lunch in the computer lab or the library,” Duo answered easily. “He said that he’s got a consulting job at home he wants to stay on top of.”

 

Consulting job…that meant paperwork that wasn’t confidential and wouldn’t be compromised if worked on in a public place. But why would Heero even bother to do it at school? “Oh?”

 

“Yeah.” Duo shrugged. His eyes flicked around the crowded, noisy cafeteria once. “It’s quiet.”

 

…Oh. That…made sense.

 

“I see,” Wufei replied simply. He resumed his lunch and dismissed the topic, letting the conversation drift over him. Maxwell talked enough for two anyway.

 

-

 

The last class of the day was Contemporary Literature, one of the advanced, specific classes Wufei was taking as part of his exchange program. He was actually interested in the subject matter too, so he fervently hoped that the class wouldn’t be a dull one.

 

He was just unpacking his books when a now-familiar voice called his name, and looked up to see Harvey coming over to his chosen seat.

 

“I didn’t know you’d be in this class.”

 

Wufei shrugged. It was Duo’s job to be friendly, not his. “I’m in the literature program. This class is part of my curriculum.”

 

Harvey’s friendliness wasn’t deterred by the brusque reply. “Oh right. I think Max might’ve mentioned that at some point. This class qualifies as an AP for me. So! How’re you liking your first day?”

 

Another shrug. “It’s alright. I’m learning.” Blatant lie.

 

“Well if you ever need any help, or need someone to talk to, feel free to come to me.”

 

Wufei gave him a funny look. “I thought that was your job with Maxw—with Max.”

 

Harvey grinned. “What, I can’t help more than one person?”   
  


“It’s asking for more work.”

 

“It wouldn’t be work,” Harvey replied easily. “Not if I want to help.”

 

The teacher chose to begin class then, so Wufei was saved from having to continue any conversations that didn’t have to do with the symbolism of the color spectrum. Not exactly the academic setting he was used to with literature, but it was something at least.

 

At the end of class, Wufei took his time putting his books away to the point of being stupidly meticulous. He started straightening the desks and bookshelves to give himself more time while the last few stragglers left. While he worked, he thought. He knew from experience that it would be good to get a few completely Duo-and-Heero-free moments every day, just for his own piece of mind. Lingering a while longer in his classroom would suffice for today.

 

Absently he heard someone enter the room, probably a student who had forgotten something. He ignored them and continuing straightening the bottom bookshelves. So he’d look OCD. So what?

 

A hand landed on his shoulder and he jumped, standing up and whirling around in one, sudden movement, arms coming up out of reflex before he remembered  _ student, civilian, innocent _ . He ended freezing in place, tense shock fighting with self-rebuke. It was only half a breath later that he realized he was staring up at Harvey and he squashed the urge to glare. Really, there was such a thing as being  _ too _ helpful.

 

Instead he forced himself to relax. He’d dropped his arms almost as soon as he brought them up, but he could practically feel himself radiating energy. He was wound tighter than he’d originally thought; working out tonight till he dropped looked like it would be a good idea.

 

Harvey was still looking at him, wearing an expression that seemed closer to concern over anything else. Damn it. Wufei wasn’t looking to talk to him any more than necessary, but having Harvey think he was a basket case would be just as bad. “…sorry,” he said, breaking the awkward silence. “I…” excuses…excuses… “I’m not used to much physical contact. You startled me.”

 

It was a poor reason at best. Harvey just looked at him funny for a second longer before nodding, breaking into what seemed to be his default smile. 

 

“Okay. I just was coming by and I heard someone still in here, so I figured I’d check. Aren’t you heading home?”

 

“I’m going to meet Max and Greg in a moment. I just want to finish up here.”

 

“You’re…fixing the bookshelves?” 

 

Wufei shrugged. “Books deserve respect, not to be thrown in every which way.”

 

Harvey let out a bark of laughter. “You’re going to have your work cut out for you; not many other people here share that mindset, sadly.”

 

Wufei shrugged again. “Then the shelves will be neat at least for as long as I’m here.”

 

Harvey’s smile turned up a few more watts.  _ Really _ could see why he and Duo were supposed to be friends. “That’s pretty cool of you. Who knows, maybe you’ll start a trend.“

 

Wufei sincerely doubted that. “Yes, maybe.”

 


	3. Chapter 3

Duo’s day had been pretty good in terms of school days, lousy in terms of missions.

 

“I’ve got nothing to work with here,” he complained, flopping down on the living room couch. Both Wufei and Heero looked up from their work, then dismissed the interruption.

 

“Oh c’mon guys, it’s just homework. Let me complain a little.”

 

“We still need to get the work  _ done _ , Maxwell,” Wufei replied, not taking his eyes off his paper.

 

“You are able to complain without us making eye contact,” was Heero’s input. 

 

Duo sighed loudly and grabbed his own backpack to pull out his science homework. “Yeah, yeah. But you can’t blame a guy for trying.”

 

“Yes we can,” Wufei said. “And it’s your fault I’ve got to make mistakes on my math homework. You’re getting no sympathy from me.”

 

“Okay, okay, but it started conversation!” Duo raked a hand through his bangs. “I’m serious. Harvey’s a nice enough guy, but that’s  _ it _ about him. He likes all the generic, general stuff fine—sports, talking about school, plans for the weekend, but I’m having a hard time getting any deeper than that. We’re talking fine, but I’m still squarely in “school friend” zone; nowhere near “able to take home to dad” zone. He was more animated talking to you in math first period then he’d been with me for the last two days. Not in terms of friendliness, but—I don’t even know.” He let out a breath of air and started marking up the paper. “Don’t get me wrong, this new age is great and I’m glad to be in the Preventers, but the ‘go blow shit up’ missions of the war were much easier than all this working around the rules garbage.”

 

“They were easier in some ways,” Heero said. “Not in others.”

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I’d never—I’m just frustrated, you know? I’m not getting anywhere, and I’m stuck at a standstill. I can see me being in the same position three months from now when the program’s over.”

 

“So use a different method,” Wufei said, putting away his math and taking out Lit.

 

“Not so easy, Wu-man.”

 

“Wufei.”

 

“Wufei.” Duo shook his head. “We’re buddies, but that’s not as close as I need to get.” It wasn’t an exaggeration either; he’d been having a really hard time finding things to connect with Harvey over.

 

“Don’t you know about the last victim—Richard Wolf?” Wufei asked. “Try to emulate him.”

 

“There’s only so far I can go before I’m a clone,” Duo replied, “and I’m doing the best I can. He’s friendly sure, and we get along. The problem is that the relationship isn’t developing.”

 

“Was Harvey in a relationship with Richard?”

 

Both Duo and Wufei turned to stare at Heero in astonishment. Unsurprisingly, Heero met their gazes coolly, though his cheeks seemed to be tinged just a bit redder than normal. In response to the silence, he shrugged. “Harvey makes friends with people but doesn’t bring them to his house. He is popular. He knows a large circle of people. He is under the public eye. In the rare event he did bring someone home, it is possible this was because he wished for the privacy his house would offer.”

 

Wufei frowned. “There wasn’t anything in the files you gave me—“

 

“No. No, wait.” Duo was thinking fast. “That actually makes sense.” 

 

Wufei raised an eyebrow. 

 

“I mean think about it,” Duo continued, mulling it over as he spoke. “He’s the town’s wonder-boy, he’s a jock  _ and  _ top of his classes, he’s popular, and plenty of girls are totally throwing themselves at him. But he’s not dating anyone and he doesn’t have any kind of rep for it. He may want to keep his interests under wraps…but he doesn’t have people he likes enough to risk it all real often.”

 

It all made sense, if one took the leap on the overall idea. “He may have not even been in any sort of relationship with Richard,” Duo said slowly. “Maybe he just really liked the guy, wanted to spend more time with him…if you’re at home, there’s no one around to notice if maybe you’re fitting some flirting into the conversation, or stealing touches…”

 

“Richard was a guest at Harvey’s house for studying purpose, according to our data,” Heero put in.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Duo nodded. “That would be an excuse for everyone else—Harvey’s such a poster kid that they’d think ‘okay, he doesn’t normally invite people over for studying, but Richard might need help and Harvey’s  _ such _ a good guy’ and boom, Harvey gets to be alone with Richard for a few hours without teenage girls breathing down his neck.” He looked at Heero in something akin to awe. “Figures you’d figure something like this out! Good man!”

 

Heero blinked, obviously not expecting the praise. “I—“ he shook his head slightly. “This poses a new problem.”

 

“Yes,” Wufei said. “According to this logic, you need to now make yourself a love interest.”

 

Duo tossed down his finished science worksheets and cracked his knuckles. “Seducing both the father and the son. ‘S a good thing I don’t go to church anymore. That’s great though. Now I need a new plan of action, approach, and I still might not be his type.”

 

“You’re already apparently his father’s type,” Wufei muttered. “Maybe his son inherited the taste.”

 

Duo stared at Wufei for a moment before bursting into a grin. “Why Wu, did you just make a  _ joke _ ?”

 

“It’s Wufei,” the ex-pilot replied with dignity. “And I most certainly did not.”

 

-

 

It was early morning, Wufei was up again, and restless. He’d made tea in the kitchen and was now pacing the small area waiting for the kettle to whistle and also for the sun to rise so that the day could start and then  _ end _ .

 

He didn’t know why he was wound so tight, but if he didn’t manage to get rid of some of the restless energy soon, he really would accidentally let loose in the school, and there was no way that would ever be good. He’d done forms and shadow fighting yesterday to exhaustion but it hadn’t helped at all.

 

A noise from the doorway halted his pacing as he spun around. Heero was standing there, dressed in work-out clothes, and was staring at him expression unreadable.

 

“You’re up early again,” he said by way of greeting.

 

“I’m always up early.”

 

“I had planned to do some exercises,” Heero continued, not acknowledging the less-than-polite reply. He paused, then, with a slight hesitation, “Since you’re awake, I was wondering if you’d be up to sparring.”

 

Wufei blanched, but quickly covered his look of surprise. He didn’t want to offend Yuy, especially not after an offer for sparring. It’d be the perfect way to loosen up and actually move, get the blood flowing properly. One lacked something when practicing on one’s own, no matter how diligent, and as much as he worked with his trainees, few even got close to his prowess. Yuy, on the other hand, would be the perfect partner.

 

For some reason his memory flickered back to the game of dodgeball yesterday, and he smirked. “If you think you’re up for it,” he said. Challenging. 

 

Heero actually smirked _ back _ , out and out with both eyes and mouth, taking Wufei by surprise for the second time that morning. “Let’s see,” he said.

 

-

 

Duo came down half an hour later to see them both still going strong. They’d rearranged the pieces of furniture in the living room, positioning them all off to the side in order to have a larger space for moving around. And move they did. Basic sparring had turned into acrobatics had turned into a no-touch chase had turned into grappling and back into sparring by the time Duo came down the stairs—early for him, because he’d heard the noise and wanted to see what was up.

 

To his credit he didn’t say anything, not even to crack a joke. Instead he sprawled feline-like on the lower steps to watch the mock fight with evident admiration. 

 

Eventually the fight wound down, Heero coming at Wufei with a punch that the latter had to block hard enough to bruise. Wufei countered with a roundhouse, Heero coming in close to overbalance the move only to be caught in a wrist-lock and forced down by Wufei who’d expected the other’s attack.

 

On the floor, Heero’s gaze flicked to Duo for the first time. “I yield,” he said evenly. 

 

Wufei let him up, knowing that there hadn’t been a winner or a loser; the only reason Yuy called the fight was because of Duo. 

 

Heero turned to Wufei. “Thank you,” he said. Then, before another word could be uttered, he stepped over Duo on the staircase and went upstairs, presumably to head for the shower. Wufei didn’t blame him—he’d be taking one as soon as Yuy was done. In the meantime he started to move the furniture back into place.

 

“Hey, hey!” Duo said. “Why don’t we leave it like that? No reason to keep moving it back and forth, right?”

 

Wufei let go of the couch and looked incredulously at Duo. “I hardly think this will be a regular thing.”

 

“Why not? You enjoyed it, he enjoyed it, and it’s actually a way to stay in shape here. I’ve been doing run-throughs with the study upstairs—Heero arming and locking it and me breaking and entering, but it’s been getting kind of old for both of us.”

 

“If you want to keep it…” Wufei shrugged. “Help me arrange this stuff better then. It can’t all be just pushed in a corner; we use these things.

 

“Sure thing!”

 

The next couple of minutes were spent rearranging the furniture properly into their new, smaller space, and by the time they’d finished, Heero had come back downstairs. He headed into the kitchen, followed closely by Duo, while Wufei headed upstairs to take his own shower.

 

In the bathroom he made quick work of stripping down and getting under the water, tsk-ing a little at the few scrapes he had from the fight, rubbing his arms where he had blocked attacks. Sparring with Heero had been a great challenge, but it also had consequences. Normally blocking an attack just meant you blocked a move. With Heero it meant you avoided getting something broken and just ended up with bruises instead. Wufei was fairly positive that both his forearms would be blooming with proof of the battle before the morning was over. He shrugged. Not a big deal. Probably would be a good idea to wear long sleeves today though.

 

-

 

Duo had just started making his scrambled eggs, Heero sitting at the table with a protein drink, when Duo had had enough of the silence.

 

“So!” He said, cracking his eggs into the pan. “You guys looked like you were having fun.”

 

“I did enjoy the fight,” Heero said. 

 

“Yeah, I know you’ve missed having someone to really challenge you. This going to become a regular thing?”

 

Heero shrugged and stared at the table. “I would like it to. I don’t know how Wufei would feel about that.”

 

“You just have to ask him, Heero,” Duo said gently.

 

Heero said nothing for a long moment. “He was stressed. He does not seem happy with his role in the mission. I don’t blame him. Sparring helped to released some of that energy.” He paused.

 

“But?” Duo prompted.

 

“But…he might take it as an insult. The suggestion.”

 

“Are you kidding?” Duo said incredulously. “He’s more into staying in shape that you are, especially now. And he totally respects you.”

 

“As a machine,” Heero said. The tone was even, but a flicker in his eyes betrayed him. And Duo had made sure to know him well enough to notice.

 

“As a person,” Wufei replied. Both whirled around. Wufei was leaning against the doorway, arms crossed, and looking like he was torn between annoyance and amusement. “Though maybe less right now if you’re taken by surprise so easily.”

 

“We weren’t—“ Heero wasn’t talking about being taken by surprise.

 

Wufei shrugged, headed to the table and grabbed some fruit. “I know. I’d be more worried if we  _ didn’t _ talk behind one another’s backs. That’s how we are.” He leveled a gaze at the both of them. “But I expect, if there is an issue, that you will tell me.” Finding out the hard way wasn’t an option.

 

“Yeah,” Duo said. “Of course.” 

 

Heero nodded.

 

“Good,” Wufei said with finality. “And Yuy.” Heero looked up, questioning. “Your gundam was a machine I admired. The pilot was the person respected. That didn’t change, even with the end of the war.”

 

“Understood,” Heero said quietly.

 

-

 

“Hey Harvey! Morning.”

 

“Morning, Max,” Harvey replied as Duo thumped down into the chair next to him. “Hey Aaron.”

 

Wufei glanced up. “Hi,” he said, moving to head to the back of the class.

 

“Where’re you going?” Harvey asked. He gestured to the seat on his left, where Wufei had sat the day before. “This not good enough today?” It was said with a grin, so he was probably teasing, but…Wufei glanced to Duo. This was  _ his _ assignment, and Wufei continuing to sit next to Harvey might make for distraction from the goal. Almost imperceptibly, Duo nodded, glancing quickly to the target. It was alright, at least for now. Probably because he didn’t have an excuse on such short notice.

 

Fighting a sigh—he really had wanted to just hide in the back and do the work  _ right _ . Sitting next to Harvey again probably meant having to get ‘help’. But Duo wanted him there, so…He walked slowly to the seat and sat down, starting to take out his stuff.

 

“How did you do on the math last night?” Harvey asked. “Do you want help checking over your answers?”

 

_ No. No, I do not. Go away and talk to Maxwell…Maxwell!  _ “No thanks,” Wufei said quickly. “Max double-checked them for me. But I think  _ he _ had a question for you, on an extra-credit problem.” That said, he pulled out a book for Ancient History and willed Duo to take the hint.

 

“Uh, yeah!” Duo said, pulling Harvey’s attention over to himself. He quickly grabbed some work from another class and held it out. “So this bank statement, according to the formula for compound interest--” the conversation continued until the teacher started class.

 

-

 

Second period for Harvey –and Duo, by default- was Moral Ethics in Business, a requirement for the business segment, so once dismissed, the two packed up their things, said their ‘see you laters’ and headed across the school. Duo tried to start up conversation, but Harvey seemed preoccupied so the conversation dried up until class started. Luckily it was Wednesday.

 

“Debate time, debate time!” Duo landed in his seat with a cheerful thud, Harvey sliding a bit more gently into the chair across from him. “You ready to go down?” he asked cheekily.

 

“Like I’m going to lose to you, Wells,” was the reply. Both spent a few minutes getting out notes, occasionally tossing one another questions. Their partner debate project was about bribery within business; whether or not it was ethical to bribe an officer or official if it meant getting your business into place in another area where you otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity. Harvey had immediately said ‘no’ at the same time Duo piped up with ‘yes’ and then their teacher had pulled the old switch on them, making Harvey argue for bribery and Duo arguing against it.

 

Originally Duo had taken on the assignment because he’d hoped that this partner project would open up new doors for conversation and possibly pull in a let’s-go-to-my-place-to-work-on-this invite, but no such luck. Instead he’d been left with having to argue against bribery, which was sorta a new idea to have to debate about. He grinned. Lucky for him, Wufei had been willing to help.

 

“What’s that look for,” Harvey asked. “You look way too pleased with yourself.”

 

“Just thinking about how I’m going to trounce you,” Duo said happily. “I’ve got an awesome argument, and no holes in any of it.”

 

“That’s certainly a change from a few days ago,” Harvey said, chuckling. “Remember? When you were moaning over the assignment and saying you needed help?”

 

_ Yeah, _ Duo thought.  _ And it got me six hours of one on one time with you in the  _ library _.  _ “Yeah,” he said aloud, “and a lot of good that was! Luckily, Greg and Aaron helped me out.”

 

“Oh yeah? Like how?”

 

Duo grinned. “Greg’s got know-how on almost everything, let me tell you. He showed me this database to pull up a bunch of stuff on the pros and cons of bribe-trading and I went to town from there.”

 

“And how did Aaron help?”

 

“Justice is big with him, apparently,” Duo replied,  _ and he knows how to speak _ , he thought with another grin. “He helped me with phrasing mostly. You know, how to display the arguments. That was a big help, since I’m on the other side.” It was half true. They all had learned things like negotiation—sort of important when one went under cover. But Duo had little patience for it and he was used to smooth talk and easy words over the up-and-up academic stuff required for this type of debate. Charm got you by in the real world, true enough, but not in a scholar setting.

 

“So I’m going up against a three-man team,” Harvey said mournfully. “Yeah Max, that sounds fair.”

 

Duo grinned at him. “We’re getting close, so get used to it. Soon we’ll be the three musketeers or whatever, cept less prone to the whole drinking, womanizing, waxing philosophical parts.”

 

“Figures that’s the one part you focus on in the book,” Harvey said. “You want another study session for the symbols? I’m free this afternoon for more library time, if you need it.”

 

“That’d be great,” Duo said. _ More time with you, means more time to worm my way into your life. _ He felt another twinge of guilt fighting the annoyance of the time it was taking to actually get somewhere. _ Just wish it wasn’t so hard. _

 

-

 

Wufei avoided the cafeteria altogether that lunch period, instead going to hide in the library. He was walking to the very back, past the tables and the study side-rooms, when he glanced into one and startled. Heero was there with his laptop facing the door and small window-wall but he wasn’t typing or reading. Just…it looked like he was just sitting, staring at the screen.

 

Maneuvering his book and lunch to one hand, Wufei knocked, making sure he wasn’t hidden by the door. Heero glanced up, looked away, then nodded, which Wufei took as permission to enter. 

 

He closed the door carefully and then sat down across from Heero, putting his things on the table. 

 

“Have you eaten?” was the first thing to come out of his mouth. He glared at the words, but Heero didn’t seem to find anything wrong with them. 

 

“Yes, some.” He nodded towards two energy bar wrappers. “I eat more comfortably in a secure location.” He looked up. “Why aren’t you in the lunchroom?”

 

“Too noisy,” Wufei said. “A bunch of children prattling about childish things. Also to give Wells more time. I would hate to steal his spotlight.” 

 

Heero’s mouth actually twitched upward. “Yes,” he agreed. Then he sobered. “Max has been complaining enough about needing all the time he can get. He…really seems to be worried about achieving his objective.”

 

Wufei hid his surprise at this. Heero was showing genuine concern, but not only for the mission—for Duo’s  _ feelings _ on the mission. More and more surprises. “I’m sure he will do fine, in the end,” he said. “Like there’s a doubt with Max.” He smirked, but it was friendly. “Max’s too persistent to not get results.”

 

Heero nodded, but his eyes spoke volumes. They were suddenly conspirators, sharing a private joke. It was…new. Unexpected. Possibly a new situation to assess.

 

“What sort of methods have you been using to learn interaction?” Wufei asked partly out of genuine curiosity, partly out of willingness to want to continue the conversation.

 

“Observe others mainly,” came the reply. “Associate my actions with theirs. I am…skilled at observation, but using that knowledge to monitor how I interact with civilians is a new challenge.” He was quiet for a moment. “It never mattered before, how I spoke with them, just that I needed to protect them or get them to safety or…” he shook his head. “Now I have to pretend to be one of them.”

 

Wufei frowned. “There’s learning how to interact so people don’t think you’re a computer and there’s turning into a separate sort of computer. You shouldn’t be revamping your actions to pretend to be a civilian. You aren’t—at least not these kind.” There was no need to elaborate on what ‘kind’ to which Wufei was referring. “You speak and carry yourself differently because of training but there is a point where that ends and you begin. I support that you wish to learn how to interact more, to converse, to question, to offer up opinion, but if you deliver it like a mission diagnostic…” He shrugged, uncertain as to where he was going. “Being concise certainly isn’t a crime.”

 

“No.”

 

Ready to use Heero’s one-word response to clinch his point, Wufei glanced up only to find Heero smiling. 

 

Seemed like, along with everything else, someone was learning how to make jokes too.

 

-

 

“Okay guys, that’s enough. Hit the showers!”

 

Duo stretched and popped his neck, then followed the rest of the guys into the locker room. He had yet to even work up a sweat in gym class, but no reason not to go the extra mile for interaction. 

 

Besides, he had a new theory that he wanted to test out.

 

He high-fived Harvey and a few other guys—their team had won—as he made his way into an area just a little behind Harvey. He took his time changing, watching out of slitted eyes as Harvey went about a routine that Duo had previously thought nothing of. Every so often Harvey would spend just a bit too long looking at someone, or putting extra effort into looking away. It wasn’t obvious, not if one didn’t know what to look for, but it was there. He grinned to himself. This might make things easier. All that was left to do now…

 

Duo finished changing, grabbed his bag, and left the locker rooms, heading to his next class. On arrival he plunked into his usual seat and started taking out his books 

 

Harvey caught up a few minutes later. “Hey,” he said, sliding into the seat next to Duo and taking out his books. “What’d you leave in a rush for?”

 

“Eh.” Duo shrugged. “Didn’t feel like the show today, but that’s no reason to pull you from it.”

 

Harvey’s smile fell. “I—what?”

 

Duo made a show of expression. “Just what I said. What’s the matter?”

 

Now he had Harvey’s full attention, and it wasn’t all good. “Just what are you accusing me of,” Harvey said angrily.

 

Duo held up his hands. “Nothing, if you don’t want me to. I keep secrets man, and I don’t lie. Come on.” He tilted his head just a little, raised an eyebrow. This was delicate. “What, the hair didn’t tip you off? I’m on your side.”

 

“I—you—“

 

Dou leaned forward in his seat, stopping Harvey’s outward struggle and pulling the other teen’s attention back. “All I’m saying,” he murmured, comrade-like, “is that you’re not alone. And I’m not a bad friend to have, if I do say so myself, though I understand not outing. At home, sure. Here? Nah, no reason for it.”

 

“But you don’t, uh, act—“

 

“Gay?” Duo rolled his eyes. “Stereotypes man. Won’t get you very far if that’s all you have to go on. You’d be past surprised at some of the guys I know who share the same preferences as limp-wrists.” As he said it, he silently apologized for using that term. Ugh. He leaned back in his chair, conversation much lighter now. “Preferring them doesn’t make you less of one, believe me.”

 

Harvey stared at him then looked away, silent but brain obviously working furiously. Duo let it happen as he would. It was a risk to take, sure, but it was this or stay stuck where he was, and Duo hated mud. Moving forward or back would at least be moving.

 

Finally, just before the teacher started class, Harvey turned back towards Duo. He smiled, but it was different, hesitant, maybe more real. “You still up for working on English symbolism after school today? In the library?”

 

Forward then. Duo took the victory for what it was and left things for the time being. He grinned. “Like I’d say no.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha...ha
> 
> what am I doing
> 
> help

“So what kind of stuff do you like in a guy?” Duo said it casually, popping a potato chip into his mouth. They were in one of the small alcoves of the library and Duo’d been good. He’d gone a whole half an hour of actual ‘studying’ before deciding that it was bonding time. Harvey started at the question, looking up from his books mouth already open to reprimand—

 

Duo smiled at him earnestly and ate another potato chip. “I prefer hot ones myself.”

 

Harvey actually laughed. “There’s another kind to like?” A peculiar expression crossed his face, as if he was stunned he’d said that aloud. Duo, good guy that he was, ignored it.

 

“Well sure. I mean, I know that some preferences run towards cuter. More big eyes and gentle attitude, you know? I don’t go for that much—I’d rather someone who can keep up with me whether it’s with wit or on the field.” If Harvey thought Duo meant soccer when he really meant battle, it wasn’t  _ his _ fault.

 

Harvey nodded. “Yeah. I guess—I guess I never really thought of it before. Um…guys who know where they stand. Looks…” he glanced up, and was Duo mistaken or had Harvey’s eyes lingered on his face for a second? “A nice smile.” 

 

Duo grinned and leaned forward. “It’s nice to have someone to talk about it with, huh,” he said.

 

“Yeah.” Harvey smiled back in earnest. “Yeah, it is.”

 

-

 

Heero looked up from his laptop as Wufei walked back into the living room. They’d silently walked home together, Duo letting them know that he was getting Harvey time in the library, and Wufei had immediately retreated to his room. Heero had just stayed in the living room and begun his homework, but every so often he found his eyes flickering away from the screen to Wufei’s door. He had assumed it was out of habit, checking on a comrade. But that didn’t explain why he felt…better, when Wufei had come out of his room.

 

“Did your day go well?” 

 

Wufei glanced up from taking his books out of his bag. “I suppose,” he grumbled. “As well as it could have gone. I’m more used to missions that offer challenges, not ones where I have to blend in with children.” They may have been the same age, but the both of them considered their classmates just that. Wufei couldn’t think in their way of everyday life. He itched to be doing something—making a difference in this new world where his mix of wanting to learn coupled with his sheer boredom for the mundane made it hard to take his own peers seriously. Heero could…understand that. He too, didn’t fit in a world where war wasn’t wanted, the tools for fighting it not needed. But he  _ wanted _ to fit. He was tired of the world without peace. He wanted to protect it now that it had been achieved.

 

It was a more personal war, against those who wished for the impersonal kind back again. Almost a depressing thought, to know how he wouldn’t ever be free of it. But the reasons were different now; that made a difference to him. And also…he looked again at Wufei who had gone back to bending over his books, his small gold-rimmed glasses making him look all the more like the scholar he strived to be. 

 

There were enjoyable things from this new era. Camaraderie— _ friendship _ . That was new and…nice. Duo had spent hours beating the idea into Heero’s head, that Duo  _ wanted to be his friend _ , that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, that he didn’t care about the hair triggers left over from war, the social awkwardness from a childhood that never happened. And it was helping a great deal in many ways. He’d come to appreciate Duo and all that he offered genuinely. It was all Heero wished that one day he could take a bullet for him, repay all that kindness in some way. And someday—he hoped, maybe Wufei would be his friend too. He would try very hard.

 

They worked in a companionable silence for some time, until Wufei finally took off his glasses and stood. He stretched, then turned to Heero. “I’m going to start dinner. Would you like anything in particular?”

 

“I—“ Duo had always been home before, for dinner preparation. Heero had usually just gone with his preference. He—he didn’t— “No, I’m—Please make whatever you’d like. I’m not picky.”

 

Wufei rolled his eyes and sighed, and for a terrifying moment Heero thought he’d said something wrong. Then, “Believe me, Yuy, I know you don’t care what you eat as long as it keeps you going. But food can be enjoyed too, for all it looks like Duo inhales his without tasting it. Are there any flavors you like? Or dislike? Over others?”

 

What he liked? He thought quickly through the lists of foods he could remember eating; some that stuck in his mind for bad reasons over good. Eventually he managed, “I don’t like smoky flavors. Tasting smoke. I dislike that.”

 

Wufei nodded. “Okay.” That was easy enough to understand. “Are there any other flavors you’d prefer avoiding, if you could?”

 

“Almond.” The answer was quick this time, Heero having gotten used to the question. “The flavor is…something I’d rather avoid.”

 

That did surprise Wufei. Almond? “Any other nuts you don’t like?” 

 

Heero shook his head. “No. I just don’t like the flavor. It’s fine if they’re the whole nut. I just don’t like the flavoring.” He’d learned that from the time some desk worker had brought and brewed a new coffee with almond flavor. At first taste he’d moved without thinking, spitting out the mouthful and grabbing the entire pot to run tests, fearing a traitor on the inside had managed to poison half the staff. 

 

“All right.” Choosing not to ask questions, Wufei headed into the kitchen and started taking out ingredients. Heero set aside his laptop and followed. 

 

“Can I help?” Wufei looked up from the vegetables he’d set on the counter. The expression was mild surprise. “…do you not wish for help?” Heero asked, trying to understand.

 

“No, I just—“ Wufei shrugged and handed him the head of lettuce. “You can shred that; just tear it apart.” When Heero’s expression didn’t change, the other teen added, “I’m still getting used to you. Now, not wanting to be a soldier.”

 

“I don’t think I ever wanted to be a soldier,” Heero said conversationally as he began to demolish the lettuce.

 

“I don’t think any of us did.” A short pause. “Well, except Duo, but that’s because of his adrenaline addiction.”

 

Though his expression didn’t change, Heero’s voice revealed confusion as he said, “I didn’t think he had an adrenaline addiction.” The resulting awkward silence from Wufei explained why. “Oh. Humor. I’m sorry, I’m working on it but statistics—“

 

“You take them for what they are,” Wufei said. “It’s fine. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up actually having that addiction.” Delivered with a smirk, the expression showed the joke this time. And Heero understood. He even could smile back—one of his truest expressions since he was terrible at faking them.

 

For a moment there was just the silence broken by him shredding lettuce and Wufei chopping pieces of cooked chicken. Then, task finished with the lettuce in a large bowl, he asked for his next assignment.

 

“Do you want to cut the other vegetables?” Wufei slid over the cutting board, several carrots, peppers, and tomatoes sitting on it. “If you cut them, I can start making the rice.”

 

“What are you making?”

 

Wufei shrugged. “Nothing fancy, just a chicken Caesar salad and fried rice. Considering how much we’re making, it should definitely manage to be a dinner. Maybe even leftovers, though considering how fast Duo can demolish fresh vegetables…”

 

Heero paused in his gutting of the peppers. “You noticed.”

 

“Noticed what?”

 

“Duo—that he likes that. Most people assume…” He trailed off.

 

"Just because his personality his hyperactive doesn't mean his diet is.” Wufei shrugged, as if the observation was unimportant. “It makes sense." It did; when one grew up without fresh things, they became coveted. Wufei must have noticed after opening the refrigerator his first morning in. Heero wouldn't have stocked it past essentials; the rainbow of health food was Duo's. “Not that it matters,” Wufei added, with a sniff. “If he  _ was _ as keen on having junk for meals as he is on having it for snacks, it would have been my duty to intervene anyway.”

 

Heero nodded as he turned back to his vegetables. He could feel a smile in the pit of his stomach. He would have to tell Duo this story when the other came home. 

 

-

 

Duo clattered in a little after eight, mumbled something about really long study sessions, cafes, and a weakness for candy-bar-in-a-cup coffee drinks then headed straight to the kitchen. Wufei had gone to his room—to meditate, Heero assumed, so it was just him to see Duo’s expression when he pulled open the refrigerator door and immediately locked onto the covered salad bowl.

 

“There’s fried rice in the warming pan too,” Heero said. “Wufei wanted to leave it out for you.”

 

Duo chuckled. “What, so I leave you two alone and out of every dinner you could think of, you make a salad?”

 

“You like fresh things,” Heero replied. “Wufei noticed too. It’s…it tastes very good.”

 

“Oh man, Heero, you’re developing taste buds now?” Duo let out a low whistle. “You’ve come a long, looong way.”

 

Heero shrugged and ducked his head, embarrassed. “I had help. You…know how much I…rely on you.”

 

“I’ll take that for the thanks it is, not that it was needed. So!” Duo continued the conversation as he served himself a proper portion of both the salad and the rice. “What’d you two guys do here by your lonesome without me to make the noise?”

 

“We did our homework. Wufei began to prepare dinner and allowed me to help. He wanted to know what flavors I liked and disliked and I was able to tell him a few dislikes, after some thought. We ate dinner together and speculated on what you and Harvey might be doing. After the meal, we finished our homework and Wufei spent some time reading while I wrote out a report. He went to his room about twenty minutes before you came home.”

 

Duo nodded appreciatively. “Sounds like you guys had a nice evening.”

 

“We did. We talked a little, through dinner. And after as well.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Duo looked up, asked through a mouthful, “That’s great. What about?” Almost to himself he muttered, “I’m gonna have to thank Wufei for this rice; it’s awesome.”

 

“Work. How his training is going. Past missions. Was the afternoon with Harvey successful?”

 

Duo managed a smile through the food. “Relatively! I’m making some progress, that’s for sure. And I think I’ve finally totally gained his trust.”

 

“Really? What changed?”

 

“Came right out and suggested his preferences to his face.”

 

Silence.

 

“Did that not…offend him?” Heero asked carefully.

 

“Are you kidding? I’m pretty sure he was ready to beat me up for a second,” Duo replied cheerfully. “It was a risk sure, but it happened out okay. We spent half the time studying sure, but there was a lot of new conversations. I think I finally managed to open the door.”

 

“What did you discuss?”

 

“Preferences, past experiences—on my part, mostly, speculation about some other kids in the school, just…gossip stuff.” He shrugged. “I had to led the conversation most of the time—guy’s too good to start whispering on his own, but he was having fun after a while. Hit paydirt about an hour before I left too—he stopped talking long enough to look at me funny. Said I reminded him of a friend he had from the last program, but wouldn’t tell me anything past that, and then he got all quiet for a couple of minutes.”

 

“You think he might have meant Richard,” Heero said.

 

Duo nodded. “Hope so. Means I’m getting a lot closer to our goal. And it’s only been a week and a half!

 

-

 

“Not good…” Wufei turned away from the mirror. Proof of yesterday’s spar had definitely come into full bloom. Both arms were the mottled green and purple of new, heavy bruising from wrist to elbow, the color coming to life after a full day of buying its time. They were the only part of his body marked, and he felt some pride that even with the wrestling on the floor and being tossed for some of their more elaborate moves, it was the only place the proof of the match lay, but he wished it wasn’t such an obvious area. Especially with the gym uniform being short-sleeved.

 

Oh well, nothing for it now. He’d cross that bridge when he came to it. For now he’d just throw on something else with long sleeves and hope that, even in the event if his peers noticed, they wouldn’t care enough to bother about it. He was a teenage boy, and so were they. What were a few bruises?

 

When he’d finished dressing, Wufei headed back downstairs towards his room, planning to meditate for a little longer before fixing himself breakfast. That was until he heard the noises of someone banging around in the kitchen.

 

Not someone—Duo. Heero wouldn’t make that much noise. Forgoing meditation, Wufei let himself walk to the kitchen instead.

 

“You’re up early,” he said, by way of greeting.

 

Duo turned from whatever it was he was mixing at the counter. “Morning ‘Fei! I wanted pancakes, and it’s better to have time to make em right. Besides, I was bushed last night and ended up turning in early, so I woke up to match. You want blueberries or bananas in yours?”

 

“It’s  _ Wu _ fei,” he replied absently moving to get the teakettle only to blink as he saw that Duo had started it. “And blueberry, please.”

 

“Like minds, my man,” Duo said as he added more blueberries to what Wufei could now identify as pancake batter. There was a smaller bowl that probably had the banana mixture. A skillet was heating on the stove, pad of butter already melting.

 

“You certainly seem…on top of it this morning,” Wufei said.

 

“That’s because I’m celebrating! I actually made progress yesterday. We’re talking two steps forward and no steps back, here.”

 

“Really?” Wufei took a seat at the table. “What happened?”

 

Duo recounted his successes of the previous night, the teakettle whistling just as he’d finished. Wufei got up to make himself his tea as Duo busily got to work flipping his first batch of pancakes onto plates, all of them an even golden-brown. 

 

“So,” Duo said, staring a new conversation. “Heard from Heero that you guys had a nice night too. Thanks for the dinner by the way—it was great.”

 

“Heero helped,” Wufei replied absently.

 

“Yeah, I know. He already got his thanks. And also…you guys really get along. I’m thanking you for that too, I guess.”

 

Wufei said nothing, but his expression was questioning.

 

Suddenly self-conscious, Duo rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I mean you get him. He’s had it hard and—even I got a chance to be a kid, or think like one for a little bit, no matter the circumstances. It’s not a lot of people who can…” he shook his head. “No offense, but you were a lot less accommodating to others during the war.”

 

“We’ve all of us changed since then,” Wufei said, reminding himself not to get offended. It was just Duo. “I had…different goals then. And I can’t say I felt much need to be social during the war, considering I didn’t expect to live through it.”

 

Duo chuckled. “Yeah, and me with the opposite mindset. Make sure everyone knows who you are while you’re still alive! But I get what you mean. It’s just—nice that you’ve mellowed a bit.” He quickly held up his hands. “And no reason to go prove that you’re as hard-assed as ever, either. I’ve heard stories about those recruits you train.”

 

“I can’t imagine what you’re talking about,” Wufei sniffed, hiding his tiny -practically nonexistent, really- smile by taking another drink.

 

“Sure you don’t,” Duo said, in good humor. He turned back to his pancakes, but kept talking. “And that one rumor about an ego-based greenie who called you a cute kid and offered to give you shooting lessons after the new ‘idiot man’ showed up and blew away?”

 

“Completely exaggerated. I’ll have you know he was perfectly able to walk away from that training encounter...after he regained the feeling in his legs.”

 

-

 

Duo plopped down at his and Harvey’s usual lunch table ready to  _ eat _ . Subterfuge really worked up an appetite, especially when it was at a high school. Blending in with teenagers took a special kind of effort. Food? Definitely a good thing.

 

Ryan slid into the space across from him, mouth already open to break into the conversation.

 

“Max, dude, you have to tell me what kind of sick training those two are on. Observe them for me, will ya?”

 

Harvey chuckled. “What game today?” Greg and Aaron were swiftly gaining a Ryan-reputation of being inhumanly good at all things athletic, even though Duo knew firsthand that the both of them were tamping down on their abilities as much as they possibly could. Wufei and even Heero had expressed frustration over gym class, and Duo privately thought that the sparring sessions were about to get a lot more frequent; a way to expend the energy built up from trying to keep it down.

 

“No game,” Ryan said through his sandwich. “Endurance drills. Something you two get to look forward to, by the way. But I swear Harvey, those two aren’t human. And I’m surprised Aaron even could  _ use _ his arms for push-ups, much less bang out two hundred of them.”

 

Duo laughed. Wait till Wufei heard that one. “His arms aren’t that skinny.”

 

“No, but with those bruises, anybody’d be hurting. And not even a wince out of him.” Ryan said this with evident admiration, but Harvey looked up, expression suddenly serious.

 

“What bruises? He’s in my first period, and I didn’t see a mark on him.”

 

Ryan shrugged. He obviously didn’t see the big deal. “That’s cause he’s wearing long sleeves. They’re just on his arms. He probably got them from yesterday’s class.”

 

“And you thought that they might be bad enough to really hurt? Just how—“

 

This time Duo’s laugh was forced as he interrupted. “Geez man, chill out? It’s not that big a deal.” Inside his mind was racing as he tried to remember what Wufei had looked like that morning. He’d come into the kitchen dressed, and he  _ had _ been wearing long sleeves, but Duo hadn’t thought anything of it. And bruises? He hadn’t noticed anything but then again, he hadn’t seen anything. But why would Wufei even have bruises? None of them had done anything physical except gym at school and personal training, and—

 

Of course. The sparring session yesterday morning. Duo let out an invisible sigh of relief. That wasn’t even close to a problem. He turned back to the conversation, eventually getting the table onto a conversation about plans for the weekend. Every so often he noticed Harvey frown and look around the lunchroom, as if he was searching for someone, but the other teen returned to the talk quickly enough.

 

-

 

Wufei could hardly suppress his muttered  _ finally _ when the final bell released them all from class. Belatedly he realized that he hadn’t needed to; normal students did that all the time. Still getting used to the situation.

 

It’d been an okay class at least. Not learning much but learning something, and he was enjoying some of the assigned reading if only for refreshing his memories. And Harvey had been amazingly silent that period too, just glancing over occasionally, but looking away before Wufei was expected to say something.

 

…not that it lasted. Of course not. Harvey barely waited for the last person to leave the classroom before he rounded on Wufei. “Let me see your arms,” he said sternly.

 

Wufei, who’d been putting his books away, looked up, expression carefully schooled into taken-aback wary. “…excuse me?”

 

“Your arms,” Harvey said. “Ryan said he saw them at gym, that they looked really badly bruised.”

 

_ He did, did he. Stupid meddlers _ . Why were all children so fueled by gossip? Wufei didn’t even pretend to keep the annoyance off his face. “He exaggerates. It’s just a couple of bruises, and they certainly aren’t any big deal.”

 

“Then let me see them, just to relieve my own mind!” Not waiting for an answer, Harvey lunged forward. Wufei, fighting his instincts, jumped behind his desk, arms tightly crossed to keep from throwing them up in stance.

 

“Don’t  _ do _ that,” Wufei said with a glare. And, remembering his first entrance with Duo, added, “Does  _ no one _ here respect personal space?” 

 

Harvey looked instantly chastened. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry. It’s just—one of my old friends started showing up at school with bruises, and he never told anyone what happened, and last I heard of him he’d been  _ hospitalized _ . And apparently no one knows who it  _ was _ —“ He clenched his fists, visibly reining himself in.

 

Richard, Wufei realized. He’s talking about Richard. And he’s worried…“You think I might be being abused,” he said flatly. Harvey said nothing. Wufei sighed—quietly, so that Harvey wouldn’t hear.

 

“And it would make you feel better if you saw the bruises?” Harvey nodded. “They’re perfectly innocent. Both Greg and I practice martial arts. He was kind enough to spar with me yesterday. That’s all these are.” As Wufei spoke, he rolled up the sleeve on one arm and held the arm out for Harvey to inspect. “It looks worse than it is. I don’t even feel them.”

 

Harvey’s eyes widened, and then in one movement he pulled Wufei’s arm closer. “Aaron!  _ Greg _ did this? Greg  _ Kimura _ ?” 

 

Raising an eyebrow, Wufei looked from his arm to Harvey and back. “What’s the problem now?”

 

“How is the fact that your entire arm is purple not a problem!”

 

“We were sparring. I told you that,” Wufei replied testily. “This is not a big deal.”

 

“He was wearing short sleeves today,” Harvey said, his anger clear. “And there wasn’t a mark on him.”

 

Wufei rolled his eyes. “That’s because I’m better disciplined at pulling my punches. You  _ do _ remember that he comes from a family with a heavy military background. Look, it’s not like he managed to break my arm. I’ve had worse than this from sparring. I can’t even feel them. I need to go home.”

 

“With Greg.”

 

“ _ Yes _ . And Max. You know, those two guys I’m living with for the semester? We were supposed to meet outside the front doors—they’re probably wondering why I’m late.”

 

“You walked home with Greg by yourself yesterday; Max was with me.” Harvey looked concerned.

 

“Yes, so wha—“ Wufei stared at him for a full ten seconds, eyebrows raised, before the words made sense. “You think I’m having trouble with Greg?” He sputtered, now trying not to laugh. “ _ Greg _ ?”

 

Harvey glared. “What am I supposed to think, Aaron? You’re fine, and then the second day you know him—the first time you’re home with him alone, you come in like this.”

 

“I don’t know, maybe that I’m telling the truth that we were just sparring? Max can vouch for me, being as he watched. Not, by the way, that it’s any of your business in the first place. I have known you for three days, Harvey. Let go of my wrist.”

 

“What aren’t you telling me? There’s no reason to be defensive about this. Aaron, please if you’d just tell me—“

 

“You are obviously not in your right mind,” Wufei said flatly. “Otherwise you’d listen to me. And to yourself. You just suggested _ Greg  _ might be hurting me. Believe me, if—“  _ He managed to hurt me enough for it to matter, I’d have deserved it. _ No, that—probably would raise even more problems. He switched thoughts. “Believe me, I’m  _ fine _ .”

 

But Harvey was already thinking again, and probably coming to another –wrong- conclusion, with Wufei’s luck. In a much softer tone he said, “Aaron, is this why yesterday—when I startled you—? Of course it’s been going on longer, if it’s such an ingrained reaction—it couldn’t be Greg, but Aaron, who’s been doing this to you?

 

Wufei fiercely squashed the urge to hit something, instead putting the energy into pulling his wrist free with a little more force than necessary. “I’m done running around in circles talking about this.” In one motion he grabbed his bag and ducked around Harvey, out the door before the other teen could get in another word.

 

-

 

When Duo and Heero saw Wufei’s expression, both wisely kept their mouths shut. The walk back home was completely silent. Once they were inside, all three did automatic security check-glances, and then Wufei dropped his bag with a  _ thump _ .

 

“He thinks I’m being  abused ,” he ground out. Duo swung around to stare at him and Heero looked at him with honest surprised.

 

“Why would—“

 

Wufei brandished an arm. “He thinks these are proof of it. Absolutely refuses to believe I was sparring, even after I said you’d watched it happen. And he first thought ‘Greg’ was the problem, of all things, before he decided it’s been “going on” longer than I’ve known him. So Greg is innocent, but someone else out there is responsible for the bruises and I’m defending them for god-knows what reason. Of course, he failed to take into account that if this so-called bully knew me before the program, the only way said bullying could continue was if I was  _ followed _ here, along with the fact that I’m far from the type of person to take a bully lying down.” He’d find the idea amusing if he weren’t so annoyed. He wasn’t weak and he didn’t need protection.

 

He had figured Duo, after hearing the whole story, might be amused, after getting over the shock, Heero probably not caring one or another. What he didn’t expect was Heero’s expression to cloud.

 

“He thought I would be capable of abuse?” The question was angry, pained.

 

Wufei reeled back whatever he had been about to say, back-pedaling his thoughts. “I—he was angry. I believe that blinded him to common sense for a moment. After he actually thought about it, he discarded the idea.” He crossed his arms. “Harvey still thinks Aaron’s being abused, but the culprit is unknown.”

 

Duo slung an arm around Heero’s shoulder, ignoring the way he stiffened. After a moment he relaxed minutely and Duo said,  “Don’t worry about it, Hee-man. People’ll jump to stupid conclusions in the heat of a thought. It doesn’t mean anything. Heck—remember how we met? I sort of shot you in the arm.”

 

Heero smiled –only Heero could  _ smile _ about the memory of getting shot. “Yes. Thank you.”

 

“No problem. Not everyone can understand us. But you have people who do. Duo pulled Heero into a weird, one-armed Duo-squeeze, then let go. “All right?”

 

Wufei watched them, wheels in his head beginning to turn. They seemed…closer, than before. At first he’d thought it was because of the lessons, Heero being taught more about the social world. This seemed to be more than that though. Pilot 1 and 2 had grown past being just comrades-in-arms. 

 

They were…friends.

 

It was a close to alien thought, but more because he’d never had to think of it before. He was happy for them, he supposed. In a world where it was hard to enough to just fit in, the way they were, it was good to have friends who really understood you. More than that—knew  _ why _ you were the way you were and forgave it or didn’t care either way. Must be nice.

 

The moment was over quickly, but it had succeeded in burning into Wufei’s brain, and he had to fight the juvenile urge to shake his head to clear it when Duo turned back to him and spoke.

 

“That’s interesting though.”

 

“What is,” Wufei grumped, rolling his sleeve back down.

 

“That he cared enough to bother you about it.”

 

“Already explained,” Wufei replied in a dismissive tone. “He connected me to Richard.”

 

“What, he mentioned him?” Duo asked in disbelief.

 

“Practically. He was worried about my bruises because, and I quote, “one of my old friends started showing up at school with bruises, and he never told anyone what happened, and now he’s in the hospital,” end quote.” Wufei looked annoyed. “I showed him my arm to alleviate his worries, and he jumps to the same conclusion anyway.”

 

Duo looked like he was thinking quickly, and Wufei was fairly positive he wasn’t going to like  _ this _ conclusion either. It was Heero who spoke first, however.

 

“He’s connected you and Richard in his mind,” came the statement in a matter-of-fact tone. “That much is obvious.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Wufei said. “We’re nothing alike, according to his file.”

 

“Be that as it may, he seems to have found enough similarities to worry over you in the same manner.”

 

Wufei crossed his arms. “Explain your reasoning.”

 

“Ryan thought nothing of the bruises,” Duo said, taking over. “He mentioned them in passing, with admiration, and from seeing them assumed you had gotten them in practice. A proper, normal conclusion, especially considering how you’ve been performing in gym. Harvey hears second-hand about them  _ from _ someone who came to the proper conclusion and immediately thinks of abuse, regardless of what he knows about you, Greg, and logic in general.”

 

“He mentioned Richard, the only other person, to our knowledge, who ever demonstrated having troubles outside of school to Harvey, and tried to coerce you to confide in him. Most likely in the hopes of acting as your protector,” Heero continued from where Duo had left off. “From what I’ve seen and heard and from your own and Duo’s mentions, Harvey seems to put more observation into you and seems to be showing genuine concern for your well-being. I’ve noticed this to generally be unusual without a deeper emotional tie.”

 

Not at all liking what he was hearing, Wufei scowled. “Please. Both of you are reading too much into this. He’s an overly nice guy who’s too clingy for his own good, that’s all.”

 

Duo raised an eyebrow. “Clingy?”

 

“ _ Now _ what?”

 

He shrugged. “Nothing. Cept he’s not clingier than most normal guys. Except, apparently with you.” The casual way Duo was talking belied the calculating look his eyes had taken on. “What kind of clingy are we talking about here?”

 

Understanding what that look meant—business, not teasing, Wufei frowned as he thought back over his interactions with Harvey. Duo had most likely asked for elaboration because his definition of clingy was vastly different from Wufei’s. “I’ve known him for barely three days, you realize.”

 

Duo nodded, eyes intent. “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, just—anything you remember. This might be important.”

 

Wufei shrugged but answered carefully. “Yesterday was the most noticeable. We have final period together, and today he was silent and two days ago we’d just been introduced. Yesterday we both got the class a few minutes early, and he asked how I liked the reading. Instead of sitting down after the greeting, he chose to lean over my desk. When class began, he rested a hand on my shoulder for a moment before sliding into his seat—a completely unnecessary touch. After class he waited for me to pack up my things; I know that for sure, since I was going slowly deliberately. When I finished and, instead of leaving, headed to the back of the classroom, he followed and struck up a conversation.” He paused, frowning.

 

“Anything else?” Duo prompted.

 

“…yes. At one point I reached to grab an armful of books from a higher shelf. He placed his hand in the small of my back though I needed no visible support and I certainly didn’t ask for any. And on finally leaving the classroom, he did the hands-on-the-shoulder goodbye again. I believe that’s it.” 

 

Heero and Duo glanced at each other. “Wait a sec,” Duo said. “You were reaching for some book and he ‘supported’ you? Who does that?”

 

“Harvey, apparently. Too clingy for his own good, like I said.” Wufei snapped back. “So? What was the point of this?”

 

“Just info gathering, that’s all. But listen…Wufei, there’s a chance you might be able to play a bigger part in this. First we’ve got to get rid of this abuse thing—there’s no way I want you to try and play on something like that. I’ve got some instructions for you, for tomorrow.”


	5. Chapter 5

Even after his morning meditation and warm up, Wufei still felt on edge. He wasn’t sure if it was because yesterday had left such a bad taste in his mouth, or because he was going to have to seriously compromise his morals to get through today, but he felt antsy and anxious and wanting very much to spend the next three hours with his sword and someone who knew what they were doing.

 

Sighing, knowing that was certainly a useless wish, he started his tea then padded out of the kitchen, almost running smack-dab into Heero in the process.

 

“Good morning,” Heero said, unfazed.

 

“Morning.” Heero was in his workout clothes again. Did that mean he might be looking to spar again? It would certainly help, that was for sure, especially considering that gym class was pathetic.

 

As if reading his mind, Heero nodded towards the space cleared and left from their last sparring match. “Would you…?”

 

Wufei smiled.

 

Heero smiled back.

 

-

 

Duo came downstairs a little later than he had before, with the two already winding down on their own by the time he reached the ground floor. Once again, Heero immediately headed upstairs for the shower, leaving Duo and Wufei alone in the living room.

 

“You guys sure know how to start a day with a kick,” Duo said.

 

“Pun only slightly intended?” Wufei asked, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Something like that. So! You think you’re ready to face your first day of having an actual assignment?”

 

Wufei rolled his eyes. “It’s not all that much of an assignment.”

 

“Yeah, uh, no offense Wu, but you’re not that much of an actor. I think you’re too straight-and-narrow for that.”

 

Wufei snorted. “No offense taken. I leave that business to people who know what they’re doing and don’t make a mess of it. I’m not about to tell you to go participate in a sword fight. And it’s Wufei.” He shrugged. “I’ll do my best, and I’m counting on you to pick up like you said you would.”

 

“Don’t worry, you can leave that to me,” Duo replied with a grin. “And by the time I’m done with this morning, there’s no way Harvey’s gonna bother you about abuse.”

 

“If only that would get him off my back completely,” Wufei muttered.

 

Duo chuckled and headed to the kitchen. “You really dislike him, huh,” he called over his shoulder.

 

Wufei, who had followed Duo, made a beeline to the teakettle to rewarm the water. He shrugged in answer to the comment. “I don’t… _dislike_ him,” Wufei grumbled. “What I dislike is spending time with him. He’s a child, too cheerful for his own good, and is otherwise mundane.”

 

“Yeah, but he’s into literature, isn’t he?” Duo asked, before chomping into an apple. “Couldn’t you discuss that? You like the scholarly stuff—that’s something you two have in common. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to talk about books with a like mind?”

 

“I’m not social enough for that,” he replied, after a beat. “I’ve grown past wanting to have discussions about meaning, wanting to dissect the author’s intentions. Honestly, I prefer to just enjoy the book. I like to learn things for the sake of knowing more, I read fiction and poetry for the insight it gives. I don’t like to debate simply for debate’s sake.” He turned to get a mug out of the cupboard, but Duo had gotten to it first. He held it out, smiling, half-eaten apple in the other hand. “…thanks,” Wufei said, taking the cup.

 

“No problem,” Duo said. “So, if I asked you about _The Awakening_ and what, in your opinion, Edna Pontellier hoped to accomplish by having an affair with Robert, you’d tell me to shut up?”

 

Wufei raised an eyebrow. “I think I’d be too busy being surprised and wondering why you’d asked in the first place to tell you to be quite. I know you aren’t studying the book in any of your classes.”

 

Duo grinned and took another bite of his apple. “Nah, but Harvey mentioned that you guys were reading it in Contemporary for comparison with more modern versions of the same concept.”

 

“Oh.” Wufei frowned, then said, “In my opinion, it was both a form of escapism and defiance. She was married to a man who couldn’t see her for anything other than her past, compliant self and she felt trapped within that image. An affair with the man who not only woke her up, so to speak, but seemed to appreciate her for more than Mrs. Pontellier, was both a way to escape the marriage that she now found so unfulfilling and to not follow orders and duties like the good little wife she no longer wished to be.”

 

There was the short silence of Duo processing the answer-- that Wufei had answered at all, then, “I thought you didn’t like discussing stuff like that with people anymore.”

 

Wufei had his back to Duo while he made his tea, so Duo couldn’t see his face when the reply came, “I guess it depends on who wants the conversation.” Wufei let out a breath, his back still to Duo. “I suppose I don’t care to know many people. Never did. But comrades matter. And I enjoy some conversation—I’m not a total recluse.”

 

“You know,” Duo said conversationally as he threw his apple core away and went digging through the cupboards for some cereal, “You’re going to have to consider us both friends _eventually_. Now that we’ve gotten past the part where we were all going to die. I plan on breaking you down.”

 

Heero entered just as Duo finished his declaration, and he let out a sudden quiet bark of laughter, more of a breath than anything. “He means it,” he told Wufei. It sounded serious, but there was a fondness there. “Duo’s dogged about friendships. And you are a worthy colleague, and ally, and…person. I hope he doesn’t fail.” Then he was headed to the refrigerator and pulling out a protein drink, his piece said. Wufei wasn’t sure how to react, which probably helped to explain what he blurted out next.

 

“How did this…start?” The other two looked at him, questioning, and he rephrased, “I mean, you didn’t used to be…even you two…” He knew what he was asking, but he wasn’t sure what to say.

 

Heero looked at Duo, who shrugged easily then replied, “We just sort of started talking one day.“

 

“Oh.” Definitely more to it then that, but if they didn’t want to share he’d accept it. Secrets were to be expected, after all. He had plenty of his own. “I see.”

 

“He came up to me a few times after battles or missions,” Heero said suddenly. “He said that he’d noticed I seemed…lonely, and offered a person to talk to. At the time, of course, I was too focused on just the mission of the war. But after…” His eyes took on an interesting expression at the memory. “Afterwards I was a soldier with nothing to fight and I didn’t know what to do. With myself. My skills…were not suited to the new peace. Then Une called me and asked if I would become a defender for what I had fought for and it was good to have objectives again but…I was no longer sure of my overall mission objective. I was supposed to watch out for myself now and I didn’t have experience with that.” He nodded towards Duo and continued, “I remembered his offer and…” he—was that a _smirk_? “I think Duo was surprised to hear from me.”

 

“I fell off my seat,” Duo said, his cereal apparently forgotten. “But in a fun way. You know—happy, after the being really surprised. And we just…started from there, I guess.” He grinned. “Glad it happened.”

 

Wufei looked at the two of them, astonished as they met his gaze openly. That was much more than he had ever expected them to share. It was a requirement of what they did to have trust in one another’s body and minds. Shots fired, doors kicked down, bombs set off, split-second decisions. That was routine. This was a completely different terrain with different rules he didn’t know.

 

Were they…hoping to teach him?

 

He could think of no response that wouldn’t belittle the information just given to him. Instead he just nodded, eyes veiled as he took his things to the sink to wash them. He felt a pang of “made the wrong decision” as he caught a tiny flicker in both Duo and Heero’s eyes that looked strangely akin to disappointed.

 

-

 

“—and I mean, it’s not like Ryan hasn’t ranted about you guys during gym but man, I have to say it is cool to see for real. Oh, morning Harvey!”

 

“Morning Max.” Harvey smiled at the both of them. “Hi Aaron.”

 

Wufei nodded but didn’t reply. Harvey frowned, looking upset. Duo didn’t seem to notice and kept talking.

 

“You’re going to have to show me how to do that one flip thing too. I’ve seen Greg work out before—s’weird, him being kind of a nerd but _buff_ and still, you matched him for money or something. Wow, that’s all I have to say. I am literally in awe of you.” Duo let out a breath and threw his arm around Wufei’s shoulders as they continued to class. Harvey followed, curiosity piqued.

 

“What happened?” he asked, flicking a look from the arm Duo had around Wufei to both of their faces. “Sounds like it was quite a sight, whatever it was.”

 

“Aaron and Greg do martial arts stuff! And it’s pretty much one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I had an action movie come to life in my living room!” Duo yawned, continuing, “granted, I had to get up early to see the show—they’ve been doing it on the sly early in the mornings not to bother me or something, the dorks, but if I have to forgo some sleep to see that everyday, you better believe I’m gonna.”

 

Harvey smiled. “Sounds really cool.” He threw a quick glance at Wufei’s crossed arms before addressing him outright. “You both must be really good to impress this guy,” he added. “Max has been known to fall asleep during the classes showing battle footage from the _war_.”

 

The glance shared between Duo and Wufei then was akin to a silent snicker. “I believe it,” Wufei said in a deadpan. “And he’s more likely to fall asleep now, what with his insisting on waking up early.”

 

“Hm, well, the way he’s gone on about it, sounds like it would be a stupid show to miss.”

 

Odd way to phrase a statement. Wufei just shrugged and started taking out his books while Duo directed Harvey’s attention again. Crisis averted, minor mission accomplished. Probably. Wufei supposed that he’d find out for sure come final period.

 

-

 

It was third period that Duo started feeling something was…off. Nothing especially out-of-the-ordinary had happened, but after saying goodbye to Wufei after math class Harvey had seemed distracted, and now together in class, when they were supposed to be busy concentrating on taking notes, Harvey, studious, hard-working Harvey kept glancing over at Duo every few minutes.

 

With half an hour to the end of class, Duo couldn’t take much more of that. He quickly jotted down a note, crumpled up the ball of paper and tossed it at Harvey’s desk.

 

He did absolutely nothing to hide his smug smile when it bounced off the other teen’s forehead and then landed neatly on top of his open notebook. _Yes! Still got it_.

 

Harvey frowned at the note but opened it anyway. _Dude, you okay? You seem distracted_.

 

Biting his lip, Harvey quickly glanced at the teacher before scribbling a quick note of his own and carefully handing it over to Duo. _I’m fine. Just…yeah, distracted. Thinking. I’ll talk to you about it after class?_

 

 _Sure. Who knows. Maybe this time you’ll have to borrow my notes._ Harvey rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to send over a reply.

 

By the time class was over however, Duo was getting the distinct feeling that he was on the edge of something major. It fit—the sudden change in Harvey’s behavior, wanting to talk to Duo after class…he was hoping that he’d finally melted a bit more of the iceberg.

 

“So what’s up?” He asked as soon as the bell rang and they were able to get up from their seats. “You okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Harvey said. “I’m fine. Just…” He raked a hand through his hair and glanced over at Duo, his eyes flickering during the look. “I’m not sure. I’m thinking about something.”

 

“Care to share?” Duo asked with an open smile. “You know I’m up for an ear.”

 

“Yeah,” Harvey said again, before sighing. “You really…” He trailed off.

 

“Really?” Duo prompted.

 

Shaking his head as if to clear it, Harvey grinned. “Nothing big. Come on, we’re going to be late for our next class. But…”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Do you maybe need to meet after school again?” He was trying to sound casual, but the question was almost pleading. “Maybe…in the coffee shop across the street or something? And we can talk then.”

 

“Sure, Harvey.” Duo smiled, letting the subject drop easy. “No problem.”

 

-

 

When Wufei didn’t meet him for lunch in the library that day, Heero knew to identify his feelings as acute disappointment. He knew that it was for the mission and he accepted and understood. But he wasn’t happy about it. And not even in a worried way, because of course Wufei wasn’t in danger. He wasn’t happy simply because he…missed the other teen.

 

The last two days had been different from the week prior, where Heero ate his lunch alone. Wufei had provided conversation and even, surprisingly, a desire to continue it. Heero could only bring Duo to mind as another person he actually enjoyed talking with, and a lot of that had stemmed from Duo being, well, _Duo_ and being able, by this time, to almost read his mind on things to talk about. With Wufei it was an entirely different experience of shared mentality. Heero could bring a subject up— _start the conversation himself_ and Wufei would nod in acknowledgement, carefully consider what had been said, and reply in a way that either left Heero wanting and able to continue the exchange or satisfied with what he’d heard.  And when there wasn’t anything to say, he felt able to sit in silence without feeling awkward. He had that problem a lot with people; where a conversation would just simply die and Heero was left unsure of what he’d done wrong.

 

He was used to operating alone; working, writing reports, eating by himself. Much more than he was used to spending time with another while doing those same activities. And he still enjoyed his solitude yes, but he’d been actually looking forward to lunch today, at least until Duo had informed them both of his idea and plan to follow, and it frustrated him. And on top of that, he was frustrated with himself for being frustrated in the first place.

 

Duo would probably appreciate the situation for the ridiculous thing it was. What was it he’d said? _You’ll be a real boy yet!_ Something like that. Apparently the sentence had had a double meaning, since it was originally about a marionette. Maybe after school he’d share it with Wufei—he’d probably be amused by the wordplay in the phrase.

 

Learning how to not be a puppet. It described Heero rather well.

 

-

 

After school, Duo and Harvey walked to the coffee shop together. They each ordered a drink, then headed to the back of the building, sliding into seats fairly out of the way. The shop was full with the just-got-out-of-school crowd, but they managed to get to a table for quiet conversation in a place that buzzed with noise.

 

“So,” Duo started when Harvey stared at his drink for a few minutes without saying anything. “Are you okay? What’s up?”

 

Harvey stared at his drink a bit longer before he took a deep breath and looked up. “Max, do you…um. That is—“

 

“Yeah?” Duo prompted. “Look, it’s okay. Just say what’s on your mind.”

 

Then Harvey blurted out, “Could you maybe tell me what you know about Aaron?”

 

Two things crossed Duo’s mind simultaneously: _Thought so_ and _Uh-oh..._

 

-

 

“We have a major problem.” Duo slammed into the living room, dropping his bag without stopping. “An actual, major problem.”

 

Heero and Wufei were both instantly on alert. “What’s wrong?” Wufei asked.

 

“Were you followed?” Heero moved to stand.

 

“Kind of a lot, and no,” Duo said. “You can leave the gun, Heero. This is a…different sort of problem.”

 

“Elaborate.”

 

Duo sighed and raked a hand through his bangs. “Harvey’s displayed an attraction. An actual attraction even, now that he knows he can open up to me.”

 

Wufei raised an eyebrow. “That was half of the mission objective. What’s the problem?”

 

Duo let out a breath. “The problem, Fei, is that it’s not for me.”

 

A slight narrowing of the eyes as this was considered. “That does complicate things. Who then? And it’s _Wu_ fei.”

 

“Wow,” Duo said dryly. “Got it in one.”

 

A confused look crossed Wufei’s face before he was back to narrowed eyes. “What is that supposed to imply?”

 

“I’m not implying a thing.” Duo flopped onto the couch. “Harvey’s taken a definite interest in Aaron. That’s you,” he added, helpfully.

 

Both Heero and Wufei stared. Wufei actually looked taken aback. “He…what? No, I— _what_?”

 

“Harvey.” Duo said slowly. “Likes. You. I’m a friend and confidant, and you’re a love interest. That’s really as simple as I can make it.”

 

“Well that settles it,” Wufei said, after a pregnant pause. “He has no brains at all. I’d wondered.” Then he sighed, resigned. “What exactly do I have to do?”

 

Now it was Duo staring. “Are you kidding me? You’d actually work with that?”

 

“It’s the only lead we have right now,” Wufei pointed out, though he didn’t look too happy about it. “And while it’s entirely possible he’ll lose interest in me soon, maybe even switch over to you, if I can get an in, we can get out all the quicker.”

 

Heero nodded, looking almost as upset. “Wufei’s right. If this is what we have to go on for the mission, it’s best to just continue as planned. Acting would not be a problem either, as Harvey’s taken a liking to Wufei as he is now. He would not have to try to change anything.”

 

“But what about his father?” Duo looked embarrassed to even bring the subject. “You’d have to…entice him, if anything. Which isn’t, uh, much of your forte. And I really, really don’t mean this bad so don’t take it bad, but what do you _know_ about sexual situations, anyway?”

 

Wufei shrugged. It was a casual, could-care-less move and seemed entirely wrong. “That it hurts. Is generally unpleasant for everyone involved. I can’t say I was hoping to relive the experience or parts of the experience with anyone anytime soon, but I’ll do what is needed. Catching the criminal is more important than my petty discomforts.”

 

Dou stared at him and Heero suddenly wouldn’t meet his eyes.

 

“…what?” No response, even Duo astoundingly speechless. Wufei glared, annoyed. “ _What_? So I’m not happy about the situation! Don’t look down on me for _that_. I said I’d do it and I will!” No response. _“Well?”_

 

“Nothing,” Duo said in a hurry. “I—sorry. For bringing it up. I didn’t mean…”

 

Wufei exhaled and shrugged, dismissing it. “It’s not like you knew.” After a long pause, he added, hoping to distill the situation, “It…is true that I don’t have much experience. And it’s not like being angry and upset-” and humiliated “-over being forced into something you don’t want does much as a learning experience. I apologize for getting upset. It’s been a long time,” he said that almost to himself. “I…hadn’t thought about it recently.”

 

It wasn’t that he had forgotten. Never. More like he’d grown past it. It was another learning experience, another memory. Meiran would always be a part of his life, but he chose to remember their heated arguments, the occasional quiet moments. At that point in his life, the…intimate duties of marriage, he could have lived without.

 

The abrupt sound of Heero pushing out of his chair brought him back to the present just in time to see the teen turn away to head quickly upstairs, expression hooded. Confused, Wufei glanced to Duo for an explanation only to see him staring at him looking stricken.

 

He was definitely missing something.

 

Wufei crossed his arm and said firmly, “Explain your reactions. Now.”

 

Duo gaped. “Nothing! I just—we—didn’t mean to bring anything up! Or--! Shit, Wufei, you could’ve said something! I would have figured something out, or tried to convince Harvey off of you, or—“

 

“What are you babbling about? Why did Yuy run upstairs?”

 

“Because maybe he feels as bad as I do about sending you into a situation that might remind you of being raped! He’s only human!” Duo threw up his hands. “Fuck, you could have _said_ something. I mean, sure, we all dealt with shit as pilots, and me off the streets knew plenty about that but no wonder you’re so uptight about it if it’s all you _know_. I’d have been less clingy, or—or something!”

 

But now Wufei was glaring, making sure he’d heard the explanation right. “What in the stars made you think I’ve been raped?”

 

“You just _said_ _it_.”

 

“ _What are you—_ “ Wufei paused. Thought.

 

…Oh. “Duo, I was talking about my _wife_.”

 

Duo choked and gestured at nothing, this new turn apparently shocking him back into speechlessness. Twice in one night—Wufei filed that little victory away for when he could truly enjoy it and waited for Duo to regain some sense. After a few moments he gasped out a weak, “…what?”

 

 _Grant me patience_ , “I was married. An arranged marriage. Neither of us liked each other much, especially in the beginning, even less so after the ceremony. We had to consummate the marriage on our wedding night, as was our duty. We didn’t know what we were doing because learning about sex was improper and whatever we managed, we both hated.” Enough of an explanation to be an explanation but nothing else. Fine.

 

“Um.” was all Duo said at last. “Wait, ‘was’? You aren’t any more?”

 

Wufei closed his eyes. Opened them again. “She died honorably, defending our home.”

 

“…oh.”

 

There was a moment of silence, and then Wufei exhaled. “I should explain to Yuy. I don’t want him coming to the same conclusion you did.”

 

“Yeah,” Duo said, still subdued. “Good idea.”

 

-

 

Wufei went upstairs to explain things to Heero, leaving Duo with his own thoughts. So this is how it was going to go down, huh? He couldn’t say he was happy about it. It wasn’t exactly fun to flaunt for someone you despised, knowing that they’d be touching you and thinking of you and who knows what else. At least he had experience with it, knew to put on a smile mask and roll his body the right way, knew to just finish the job and get out get out get out, take a shower, and try to never think of it again.

 

But Wufei was too… _good_ for that. Too pride and honor and… _naïve_ for that. He’d grown up enclosed on a tiny colony knowing only what they taught and he learned on his own, got thrust into a war before he could finish learning, and now was without knowing—being aware of the other side of people. Hell, Duo wasn’t even sure Wufei had a sex drive for all he noticed anyone else. The face he’d made when he had found out Harvey liked him? Almost priceless. Duo felt the price was too high. It wasn’t fair to him.

 

And he’d had a wife…Duo wondered about that. Wondered what kind of girl she’d been, how she’d reacted when she found out to whom she’d been engaged too. There was no way she could have been simpering or weak, not with the tone Wufei had used in his brief description. It was funny to imagine her as a little spitfire who had given Wufei a run for his money in being stubborn. He chuckled a little at the thought. Wondered if maybe they’d grown to at least like each other in the end. Happy memories were rare for them, sprinkled within a long history of bad turns.

 

Duo sighed. This would be another one of those bad ones, for Wufei to add to his list. Interaction with Harvey was all well and good, but there was no way he was sending Wufei in blind to deal with Archie Bravewater.

 


	6. Chapter 6

When Heero and Wufei came back downstairs, both looking about as embarrassed as they probably were able to, Duo had to squash the guilt that sprang up at the sight. His announcement…wasn’t likely to make them feel better.

 

“Hey! So. Um,” he said. “There’s…okay, look, mission-mind time again, there’s something we’ve got to talk about.”

 

He got twin looks expecting him to continue. Great. 

 

“There’s just…there’s something I think you need to work on.” 

 

Wufei recognized that uncomfortable look, that hesitant grin, and immediately warning lights started to go off in his brain. “What,” he said warily.

 

“…well. You jump out of your skin and turn to kill if someone tries to hug you. If the target molests you --like we need him to-- then you breaking his fingers in retaliation is, you know, bad. You either flinch when someone touches you, or you get ready to attack.” 

 

Wufei narrowed his eyes, but conceded the point. "What do you suggest?”

  
Duo ran a hand through his bangs and sighed. "You need training in that kind of contact. And I'm talking getting used to reacting the right way for a bunch of possible scenarios. The best method would be role-playing it." He tried to grin, to lighten the mood. It didn't work very well. "At least it’s Friday; we’ve got the whole weekend to train. Heero plays the bad guy, and I coach. Whaddaya say?" 

 

The look became a glare, but Wufei wasn't a one of the five youngest preventers without reason. "Fine.” He paused, then, after a glance at Heero, added, "...if you both are willing."

 

Duo caught the glance as well, and turned to address the third teen, who had been silent so far. “Heero? Are you okay with this too?” Heero was standing stiffly and holding himself completely still; it was obvious that he was uncomfortable, probably just as much as Wufei was going to be. But it was for a mission. He wasn’t going to say no. He nodded.

 

“Strictly for the mission,” Wufei muttered. Aloud he said, “What do we do first?”   
  


“We’re just going to go through a couple of different looks,” Duo said. “Practice, you know, coy, shy, that stuff. I guess we’re lucky in that we know about this sooner over later, meaning you’ll have more time to work. Heero’ll just be on stand-by for the next few minutes—that okay with you, Hee-man?” Heero’s reply was to grab his laptop off the counter, sit down on a chair a little bit away, and start working on something. Maybe schoolwork. He still looked tense—was he worried about his role?

 

Duo and Wufei pulled out two chairs and sat across from each other—close. Best thing for working on facial expressions.

 

“Okay,” Duo said. “To start, just look at me. You know, default expression.”

 

“What, like blank-face?”

 

“Yeah, but try not to set me on fire with your mind or something and drop the arrogant thing too. Please.”

 

Wufei let out an unintelligible string of what was possibly muttered Chinese before he took a deep breath and carefully schooled his features, looking at Duo face completely empty. 

 

“Alright,” Duo said, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s just see what we can do here.”

 

The two worked the next thirty minutes on just facial expressions, Duo demonstrating glancing up with open-eyed questioning, shy glimpses from under the eyelashes, and startled, wide-eyed looks bordering on nervous. Mostly the overall instruction was  _ don’t narrow your eyes _ which set Wufei off glaring again, but at least it was after he’d gotten the hang of turning the you-will-be- _ dead _ -soon glare off when it mattered. 

 

Finally Duo stood up and motioned for Wufei to do the same. “Okay Heero,” he said. “We’re all ready for the next part.”

 

Heero closed his laptop and put it off to the side, then walked over to the table.  “Instructions?” He asked.

 

“We’ll start simple,” Duo said. “Just to work on reactions to touching. Wufei,” he directed. “Stand by the table and face me. Heero, I want you to come up and tap him on the shoulder after a few seconds, but make it random, okay?” Both nodded and assumed their positions. Wufei standing ramrod straight and looking tense as he waited.

 

“Come on ‘fei,” Duo said, “You’ve got to relax. This isn’t going to  work if you don’t.  The whole point is to  not look like a soldier. Just…” Duo lit up, a brainstorm on the way. “Look, it’s not as if you’re really going to be taken by surprise, since you’ll be paying such attention anyway. That means you get a free warning, giving you the chance to react properly. Now,” he said. “Heero’s going to tap you on the shoulder, right? Just turn slightly, widen your eyes a  _ little _ , look up at him, and then greet him normally. We practiced this. Okay? Okay. Go.”

 

The session felt like pulling teeth. Not because Wufei or Heero were uncooperative—far from it. They both followed instructions to a fault, Wufei even managing to perfectly mimic everything Duo asked him to do. But the rigidity of the exercise permeated the air, humiliation rolling off the two in waves. Duo inwardly cursed, not for the first time, Harvey’s choice.

 

Things only got worse the further they proceeded. After covering several different ways to react to a touch-based greeting, they’d moved into bursting the personal space bubble completely, and—at least Wufei looking twitchy fit this stage, Duo thought with a rather hysterical silent laugh. Heero had him backed up against a wall, Wufei looking up at him and just— _ small _ , somehow, and Duo really, really hated himself right now, for their sakes.

 

It was just unsettling to see them in such a situation. Wufei using the wide-eyes just as he’d learned mere minutes ago…it was mimicry, that’s all. Mimicry brought out for a certain situation and it made Duo feel sort of sick that it was himself Wufei was imitating. Part of the reasons he was so good at this job—him and Trowa both, really, was because neither wanted their fellow pilots to have to do learn to do it. And now here they were, Duo giving lessons to Heero and Wufei, probably the two most innocent of the five of them-- 

 

He had to keep himself steady. This was just more training, just for a mission, that’s all. Treat it like a mission exercise and that’s all it’ll be, don’t let it work into your brain, don’t let them know how upset it makes you or they’ll just feel worse, keep your voice steady you’re  _ fine _ . “…okay, Heero, you can lean in a little more; he’s cornered, and that’s what you want. Wufei just…react you know, as naturally as you can—without the attack, I mean! Like a normal kid might, get more scared, maybe angry, try to push him away,” Wufei followed the instructions to a T, pushing –weakly, good for him- against Heero’s chest, who made like a brick wall and didn’t budge. “No, Heero, you’ve got to—our villain would react to that, try to stop the resistance. Remember, this is an act of dominance and power and also  _ evil _ and—“  _ I really wish I didn’t have to put you through playing the part _ “--don’t let him fight you,” he finished weakly.

 

Heero nodded to let Duo know he’d been heard, but he didn’t take his eyes off Wufei for an instant as he let go of the other teen’s shoulders and quickly grabbed his wrists, transferring the hold to one hand before pinning them above Wufei’s head. Wufei’s eyes went wide, past the roleplay into actual shock, but to his credit he kept to his part, just struggling against the hold.

 

“Could you get out of this if you tried?” Heero murmured, curious—worried? and Duo would have missed the question completely if he hadn’t been paying such close attention.

 

Wufei had already weighed the situation and asked this of himself, and now pushed his answer out through gritted teeth. “Not since it’s you.” He looked like he was trying to control his breathing, probably from anger, though at himself or the exercise, Duo wasn’t sure. Heero seemed to have reacted to the answer, but Duo was at the wrong angle to get the answer out of his eyes.

 

Observing them both with the intensity that he was, it only registered a second later, the scene that he was looking at. Wufei pinned, breathing hard, and Heero the one pressing him down, both of them so strong but Wufei  _ caught _ , caught by  _ Heero _ , who’s aura of power was enveloping them both and Duo—Oh  _ shit. _

 

“Lesson one over! You guys can move now, we—we’ll maybe continue this later, after dinner, I’m going on a walk be back in a few bye!” Feeling completely disgusted with himself, Duo ran for the door and left the house to walk and think and get his sick mind away from them.  In his hurry he missed seeing  Heero leap away from Wufei as if burned and bolt upstairs, leaving Wufei alone in the living room a mess of breathless, panicked confusion.

 

-

 

Duo stayed outside walking for a good hour, turning things over and over in his mind. Not just the afternoon—that he was trying to rationalize away, what he had felt, the effect they – _ both of them _ \- had had on him, just a mission just a mission just a mission and he was so  _ stupid _ …

 

But now he  was remembering something from yesterday, something Heero had asked when Duo had told him his suspicions that Harvey might have focused on the wrong person.

 

_ “Why would he choose Wufei? He hasn’t known him very long—certainly not enough to know  _ him _.” _

 

_ Duo had raked a hand through his bangs and tried to come up with answer. “It’s not always a choice, who you like,” he’d finally said. “And sometimes it’s physical attraction first too.” Heero had gotten contemplative, staring hard at Duo and then at nothing, as if he’d been picturing something in his head. _

 

_ “I suppose that makes sense,” Heero had finally conceded. “Wufei is very attractive as well.” _

 

It had just been tossed out. He’d gone back to his laptop afterwards. It had just been a matter-of-fact statement by someone who’d been trained in details and didn’t know or care about whatever other meaning those words might have had so stop  _ thinking about it _ . It was nothing. Not a big deal and not something to dwell over and shit he just really hoped his stupid revelation—no  _ shut up _ it wasn’t anything of the sort—hoped his stupid fluke wouldn’t ruin anything.

 

-

 

Heero was waiting for Duo when he returned to the house, a glance over his shoulder letting the other teen know that Wufei had retreated to his room.

 

“So w—“

 

“I’d like to talk about something,” Heero interrupted, looking serious  _ he always looks serious stop being such a paranoid freak _ “Could we go upstairs?”

 

A little confused as to what was such an issue that Heero wanted to avoid Wufei walking in on the conversation  _ okay brain if you don’t  _ **_shut the fuck up_ ** _ I am  _ **_removing bits of you_ ** , Duo hid it with a grin. “Sure Heero. My room?”

 

“That would be fine.”

 

It was only once they were seated across from each other on Duo’s bed—well, Heero was seated, Duo was more “sprawled,” that Heero spoke again. And it wasn’t anything Duo had tried to expect.

 

“I was thinking about the session,” he said. “Wufei was very…opposed to it, even though he continued. Do you think…” Heero looked decidedly uncomfortable, which was saying a  _ lot _ . “Do you think this is because of the role I play? The thought of me doing these things to him? Or the attacker or someone else?”

 

“I—“ Duo immediately got an image of that afternoon flashing across his brain again. It hit him like a punch to the gut and he swallowed hard. The hour he’d just spent trying to view the session as purely training and tactical and thoroughly stamp out what he’d felt before was completely lost as it rushed back. He was picturing them for what, essentially, they were. Heero cornering Wufei, pressing him back against a wall…he swallowed again.  _ Fuckfuckfuck. _ This. This wasn’t good.

 

But Heero was staring at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. And Mr. Perfect Soldier was probably mentally documenting every twitch Duo was showing, considering that he was starting to get that concerned look in his eyes. Fuck.

“I...I think maybe he's just like that, Hee-man," Duo finally said, trying to get his former levity back. "He doesn't seem much of a touch-me-touch-you guy, you know? It’s definitely not you. You’re filling in for someone he’s not exactly looking forward to meeting. Half of that was probably from unhappy anticipation.”

 

“And the other half?” Was that tone…frustration? “I admit to expecting as much. He is very different from you, as an example. But I recall our having to enact the same types of scenarios previously, and you…cared less. Is there a reason you are less averse to touch?"

 

“It's just..." Duo rubbed at his neck. “Touch feels good, I guess. People are tactile, Heero. Even you--I mean...I touch you all the time.” He tried to hide a wince. "...exactly how uncomfortable does that make you?"

 

Heero thought, and damn if Duo couldn't just  _ see _ the gears turning in his brain. "It does not...bother me," Heero said at last. "I think it might if it were most others, however." He thought about this more. "You are different. Wufei is—the session was uncomfortable. I—“ He was struggling to say  _ some _ thing, and Duo's intuition was screaming at him that this something was very, very important to know. He waited. Heero let out a frustrated breath, almost a growl. “I apologize, I can’t—“

 

“Heero, it’s okay.” Duo held up his hands. “Wufei grew up in a really strict society remember? And for the most part, he still doesn’t really like people. He’s been trained to fight practically since birth, just like you were. Don’t you think that someone with that past, when being backed into a corner, would react badly? It’s not that it was  _ you, _ he’d probably react that way with anyone.”

 

Heero nodded, but it was an absentminded movement, as if he was already thinking about the situation differently and blaming himself for it. That wasn’t fair.

“Heero, don’t you think just the fact that he’s opened up a little to us proves that he doesn’t dislike you?”

 

Heero bowed his head, shading his eyes so that Duo couldn’t see his expression as he said his next statement. “I don’t wish to be merely tolerated. I’d rather stop interaction beyond missions if he was simply tolerating our civilian encounters.” And it was so  _ sad _ . So sad and pained and  _ awful _ that Duo acted without thinking. 

 

His first thought was _oh my god I am hugging Heero Yuy and I’m not dead_. It was one-sided, Heero stiff and mostly just sitting there—probably baffled, Duo figured—but then two hesitant arms wrapped around  Duo’s shoulders and _oh my_ ** _god_** _I am hugging Heero Yuy and he’s hugging_ ** _back_** and it felt…

Nice.

 

It wasn’t a very long hug, especially as Duo-hugs went, and Duo scrambled backwards as soon as Heero let go, covering whatever awkward that may have happened with a rueful smile. “So that might have been dumb of me, what with us just having a conversation about how touch bothers you.”

 

Heero frowned. “I specifically said I didn’t mind you. That was meant for comfort.” It wasn’t a question. For a brief moment he looked confused and Duo wished that he knew why. “I…Thank you.”

 

“Anytime, Hee-man,” Duo said, and he meant it. “Anytime.” 

 

-

 

Coming back downstairs, Duo and Heero found Wufei in the kitchen. His head immediately darted up from the stir-fry he was making to watch them as they entered the room. Eyes narrowed in scrutiny, he looked each of them over before slowly returning his attention back to the pan.

 

Heero flinched, and Duo’s brain was on overdrive trying to figure out if he had to do damage control—and  _ what _ he could do, if it was needed.

 

It was Wufei, in the end, who broke the silence.

 

“Enough,” he huffed out, turning to face them again. “I refuse to let a stupid training session amount to this sort of tension. It doesn’t deserve it. We do what we must to bring down those who’ve been avoiding justice.” With a significant glance at first Duo, then Heero, he added, “And no one is at fault for that, except the offender.”

 

“We’ll continue the sessions this weekend until you think I’m ready,” he told Duo. “I…appreciate the advice, for all I dislike the fact I need to use it. However, without it, I doubt I’d have a chance to complete the mission in the first place, considering.”

 

“Considering what?” Heero asked, curious, as he moved to set the table.

 

Wufei rolled his eyes. “My general disposition and unappeal.”

 

Heero opened his mouth, then closed it again, brow furrowed. He said nothing, but Duo could see that he wanted to yet didn’t. Wufei too, saw this, probably figuring that Heero wanted further explanation, but thought it might be insulting Wufei to ask. 

 

So Wufei didn’t force him to ask. “Richard and I, looks and personality-wise are about as different as…well, about as different as Duo and I are. Harvey may be an idiot suffering from a lapse in taste, but to entice his father…” Wufei snorted. “Let’s just hope the taste is hereditary as well, right down to the exceptions.”

 

Duo laughed. It was a sudden sound, and even he wasn’t expecting it, but he was just glad, glad the tension was broken, glad things were back to normal, that neither of them had  _ noticed _ . It was his problem, being who he was. That’s all. “You know,” he said, teasing now. “If you were anyone else in the colonies, I’d accuse you of fishing for compliments.” 

 

Wufei rolled his eyes again and turned his attention back to the stir-fry. “Go get ready for dinner.”

 

“Yes dear!” Duo chirped, turning to go. Then he ducked, narrowly missing the spoon Wufei flung at his head. Heero caught it almost without thought and returned it to the counter, looking a little confused but continuing with what he was doing as if this was normal.

 

Duo sort of wished that it all was.

 

-

 

Heero had excused himself after dinner, saying he’d return soon to begin their second training session. Duo waved him off, Wufei nodding without looking up from the book he was reading. Heero noticed that the Chinese teen frowned a little at the reminder of the second session.

 

He couldn’t blame him. Heero didn’t want to continue with them either. Not because the sessions weren’t useful, but Wufei obviously hated them and also he…

 

Well that was why Heero had excused himself. He’d wanted to think without distraction. 

 

Wufei had said that he didn’t find himself attractive. Heero didn’t understand. Wufei was attractive even with the incredible amount of conflicting opinions on what was and wasn’t beautiful. Wufei just  _ was _ , just like Duo was. Harvey thought so too, meaning that it wasn’t Heero misreading the situation with his own uninformed opinions. Duo was attractive, Wufei was attractive. He didn’t see why Wufei would think otherwise. It was simple observation. He’d noticed it before, even without…

 

That afternoon, Heero had had plenty of opportunity to observe Wufei up close—closer than he’d really ever gotten before. It was…unsettling, what he had felt. Like he wanted—like he wanted things to go farther. He  wanted to continue. Wanted…Wufei had been uneasy and uncomfortable and embarrassed, tension in his shoulders and his eyes, had felt trapped because of Heero, not because of some enemy but  _ because of Heero’s strength… _

 

Heero closed his eyes. He was the worst sort of failure. The worst sort of person, just as bad as Archie Bravewater if not lower. At least Bravewater didn’t know Wufei, wouldn’t know the kind of person he was accosting. Heero knew his strength, his fire, his pride, and still he’d experienced a thrill of pleasure from the exercise, from their positions. From—dominating. Had been tempted to throw away his control and exert his power, just in the way Duo said Bravewater would. 

 

An act of evil, Duo had said. And Heero had wanted it.    
  


The guilt was hard and sharp—painful, but it was nothing less than he deserved. But why? Why did he want what he did? He wasn’t like this during the war. Didn’t—notice things like the way Duo’s braid moved in an arc behind him during a quick turn or the way Wufei would adjust his glasses when he curled up with a book. Had things changed because after knowing them for years, now he was getting to know  _ them _ ? Because he could ask Duo questions, or listen to him chatter or— hug , because he could sit with Wufei or make dinner together with him or attempt jokes?

 

Was that why now he wanted to learn what to say, so that Duo didn’t feel bad, and wanted to spar with Wufei until the tension left his shoulders? And also why…Heero swallowed, the ball of guilt clenching tight.

 

Was it also why he desired them both so much? So much that he worried about his control? So much that he wanted to protect them from himself if not from the rest of the world? So much that it hurt because he didn’t know what he  _ wanted _ .

 

Was this…also part of learning to be human?

 


	7. Chapter 7

By Saturday afternoon, Wufei was ready to snap. Both Heero and Duo had been acting…careful. With what they did, what they said, how they acted, and it was setting him on edge. They’d been concentrating on the training sessions, only taking breaks for food and getting homework done and Wufei was heartily sick of the whole thing.

 

Not the sessions themselves. He was managing to get past his pride and could admit that the reacting lessons could- _ would _ be useful in the future. But they were undoubtedly the reason that his housemates were walking on eggshells and it was driving him crazy. Things had even gotten to the point where both of them were having problems during the training, with Duo randomly pausing during an instruction or Heero having to close his eyes and visibly reign in his discomfort and no one was talking to anyone and if this continued he was more worried about one of them coming out shooting.

 

Was he the problem? Frowning, Wufei turned the sessions over in his mind. Was he not reacting properly? Learning fast enough? Duo, after Friday’s first lesson had said something about wanting to take things slow—had that been an allowance to Wufei’s discomfort? It was entirely possible that he was not performing adequately, but Duo was keeping quiet because he wasn’t sure how to broach the subject.  _ What a stupid time for him to decide to keep his mouth shut. _ It didn’t explain Heero but…that answer was sort of obvious. It was probably humiliating for him, always being shunted into the ‘bad guy’ role. It wasn’t Heero’s fault that he was commanding and had that don’t-mess-with-me-or-someone-will-die aura of untouchable about him, but it did lead to certain stereotypes. Having to act as a substitute Bravewater would make anyone unhappy, but Heero was more than just anyone. Wufei was learning that the ex-pilot was so tuned into having to watch the world that he just felt things stronger than most people, even if they were processed a little differently. 

 

Wufei scowled. So now what? He’d figured out the problem and now he probably was going to have to bring it up in conversation in order to fix this mess. It riled that he would have to openly discuss his failings in the training, but that was certainly better than things continuing the way they were.

 

He left his room and headed to the living room. Duo looked up from the pen he was chewing on, fifteen close-to-complete pieces of paper spread out on the floor in front of him, an open laptop next to that. One thing about Duo: he certainly got efficient when something was bothering him.

 

“Are all these just for the weekend?” Wufei asked, eyeing them, partly to break the ice and partly because he genuinely wanted to know.

 

“Ah, kinda?” Duo flashed Wufei a guilty smile. “I maybe hacked into a few databases and downloaded some assignments. Get some stuff over with, right? I’m almost finished with my math homework for the week. And my physics homework. And, uh, a report for one of my business classes.”

 

Wufei smirked. Leave it to Duo. “I see. Where’s Heero? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you two.” He was confused and annoyed when Duo’s eyes widened with nervousness. Honestly! Why was it so hard for the resident chatterbox to say what was  _ wrong _ ?

 

“Oh, uh, Heero’s upstairs Wu-man. Doing research or something I think.”

 

“Fine. I’ll go get him. Stay put.”

 

He left Duo to his pilfered homework and went up the stairs, knocking on Heero’s bedroom door when he came to it.

 

“Yuy, it’s me. I need you downstairs for a meeting.” The door opened a second later and Heero silently followed Wufei to the living room. When both he and Duo were seated, he just came out with it.

 

“We established when I first arrived that, should an issue arise, you would tell me.” He frowned. “So? What have I been doing wrong?”

 

“What?” Duo's brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

 

“I may not be as well versed in the social spectrum as you, Maxwell, but I’m not blind or deaf. Ever since we started your roleplay training, something’s been off with both you and Yuy, and since nothing else has changed aside from your behaviors, I can only conclude that you’re unhappy with my performance and, for some no-doubt ludicrous reason, are hesitant to tell me about it.” He huffed, crossing his arms. “At least Yuy’s reactions are easy enough to understand.”

 

Hearing this last sentence, Heero started, his eyes going wide. What-what did Wufei know? He couldn’t—No, it—But then Wufei was continuing.

 

“—isn’t exactly a picnic, being shoved into playing the villain,” he said, glancing over at Heero. “And I’ll say it again, Yuy, if repetition will help you realize it. You’re not the enemy. I know you’re taking this seriously.” Wufei nodded to him “To be honest, if anything, it eases my mind. I know that I can trust you to be professional even with our training being what it is. For that, I appreciate you being my partner.”

 

Heero felt guilt claw at his stomach and throat and he couldn’t take it, looking away. “I am…honored you think so highly of me,” he managed.  _ But you’re wrong _ .

 

Choosing to overlook Heero’s embarrassment, Wufei turned to Duo. “As for you,” he said. “You have no excuse. Either tell me what’s wrong so that I can fix it or grow up and stop treating me like I’m going to break because of this mission. I’ve taken kicks, punches, swords, bullets,  _ explosions _ , and sparring sessions with Yuy, I think I can managed a few weeks being bait for a ephebophiliac.”

 

Duo crossed his arms. “That’s not the problem.” Then he sputtered a little and glared. “I mean, it wouldn’t be, if there was a problem. Which there isn’t. There isn’t a problem!” He exhaled and flipped his braid over his shoulder, missing the intensity with which Heero watched the movement before clenching his fists and staring at the floor. “Look, you’ve been coming along great. Really great.” Too great. Now that Duo’s mind had gone to the unthinkable once, it kept going  _ back _ , especially since Heero and Wufei were  _ too damn good at their jobs _ . The sessions had grown increasingly uncomfortable for their ‘coach’ both mentally and physically. 

 

At Wufei looking completely unconvinced, Duo took a breath and told his half-truth best. “I just…I’m not happy about having to make you both act out the situations. Heero isn’t happy about it, you’re not happy about it, and  _ I’m _ not happy about it.” He crossed his arms. “Wish Harvey had made a different choice, that’s all. Then neither of you would have to be doing stuff you didn’t like. I already know how to do this stuff, know what I mean? Just would be less painful.”

 

“It’s just training,” Wufei grumbled, like he’d managed to convince himself of this and didn’t want other opinions. “I’m learning a skill.” Preventors their age were uncommon, their ability unheard of. If he could learn to do more in the field, that was a good thing. 

 

Duo just looked at him. Finally he asked, voice quiet, “Do you really want to have this as a skill?” 

 

Taken aback, Wufei looked at Duo again. “This means more to you, what we’re doing.”

 

“No shit! I’m sending you in to get molested! That doesn’t exactly give me the warm-fuzzies, Chang.”

 

Wufei let out a harsh sigh. “I’m not taking this  _ personally _ , Maxwell. Why are you?”

 

“It’s just not the most fun thing in the world, okay? I don’t like that it has to happen to you, that’s all.” Duo glared at the floor. “It was supposed to be me.”

 

Wufei goggled. This bothered him this much? “Maxwell, you’re not sending me to my death.”

 

“No. But he’s worried about you. It’s understandable,” Heero added, before Wufei could retort. “You are highly skilled in your field of expertise, just as all of us are. But this is very far from your usual assignments and you will be going in with minimal training and zero prior experience.” Heero looked at Wufei, his eyes soft. “You shouldn’t get angry at us for being concerned for you.”

 

“I’m  _ not _ —“ Wufei stopped. Took a breath. Began again. “I’m not angry that you’re… _ concerned _ . I’m angry because you both have been treating me like all of a sudden you need to  _ protect _ me from something.”

 

When he said that, Wufei could never have realized just how deep a chord that struck in his teammates. Because, they both separately realized, that was what they had been doing. Trying to protect the other two from themselves.

 

-

 

With little resolved, the rest of the afternoon was tense and clipped, Wufei retreating into his room early to avoid it. Left to their own devices, Duo and Heero went upstairs to have a conversation of their own.

 

Duo flopped down on his bed, gesturing for Heero to take a seat anywhere. “Okay Heero, I know you’re fit to bursting. What do you wanna know?”

 

“What is the other reason our sessions bother you so much?” Heero stared at his lap. “I know that I have reasons other than what was discussed. They…worry me.”

 

“The sessions?” Duo sat up. “Shit, Hee-man, you know that if you’re really that uncomfortable being the bad guy, we could rig up something else. Wufei’s practically got it anyway, I don’t even think we—“

 

“That isn’t what I meant.” Heero pinned Duo with serious stare. “I’m not playing the ‘bad guy’ as you put it. I’m becoming one. I—something went wrong with my training, or something leftover was in my system and it’s affecting how I think. I’m beginning to want what Bravewater does, even going so far as to think of things outside of the sessions in which I play him.” He sounded furious. “It’s inexcusable.”

 

Duo gaped. Closed his mouth. Opened it again. “Heero…are you attracted to Wufei?”

 

Heero looked away. Then he nodded. 

 

Duo’s heart hurt. For Heero and for himself. It damn well wasn’t fair that Heero was so lost and felt so bad for something so normal and good. Duo was going to try his best to make this okay and make it work, for Heero’s sake, maybe for Wufei’s too, because they both damn well deserved it. Even though it meant losing the both of them. 

 

In more ways than one, this was going to be hard. 

 

“Do you, uh, remember back during the war, when Relena had that crush on you? You know, when she followed you around and tried to find you and talk to you and all that stuff.” 

 

Heero nodded again.

 

“Well she did all those things because she liked you and wanted to spend more time with you. And it didn’t hurt that you’re handsome, you know? But her feelings weren’t  _ wrong _ . Even if they died down over the years. She liked you then, just like you like Wufei now.”

 

“But the actions are different, and the emotions—I’m—The parts I play as Bravewater aren’t good, and they’re far from innocent. They’re malicious, they’re—“

 

“—something you realize is wrong,” Duo finished easily. “Which already separates you from him, Heero. He revels in it. You know how awful it is.”

 

“But—“

 

“There’s a difference man, I promise. If, in an actual situation, you had the opportunity to do the same things you did this morning with Wufei reacting the same way, would you go for it?”

 

Heero looked horrified. “Of course not.”

 

“Ding ding, Hee-man. That’s why you’re different. You’d never  _ take _ . That’s what Bravewater  _ does _ .”

 

“But I…I want to.”

 

Duo gave him a sad smile. “Wanting to have intimacy with someone else isn’t bad, Heero.  And there are different kinds. It’s my fault that this was your initiation, not yours.”

 

There was a pause as Heero thought this over. “Stop blaming yourself,” he said at last. “My upbringing and training was unusual, I know. Having you here now to help me learn is something I need and appreciate. I’d thank you for it, over blaming you for my internal confusions. It’s just…” He stopped speaking.

 

“Yeah?” Duo prompted. “I’m here for you, you know that. You can ask me anything. I promise.”

 

“I’ve done research on attraction and relationships,” Heero blurted out. “Books. Articles. What I want would be abnormal.”

 

Duo looked almost angry at that. “Heero, I don’t know what you looked up, but being attracted to someone and wanting to be in a relationship with them isn’t abnormal even if you  _ are  _ both the same gender.”

 

“That was something I noticed yes, but not what I meant. Multiple attractions seem to generally be frowned upon.”

 

There was a very pregnant pause.

 

“Um,” Duo said. “Multiple?”

 

Heero nodded, then frowned. “I don’t understand. When I had the mission with you and Trowa, I didn’t develop feelings for Trowa, so it isn’t just a matter of the proximity.”

 

“Usually it’s more than that, yeah,” Duo replied, before stuttering to a stop. “Wait—Heero, that mission was two months ago.”

 

“Yes, and?”

 

His brain caught up completely. “You—you like  _ me _ ? You’ve…you’ve liked me for that  _ long _ ?”

 

Heero shrugged and looked down. “I’ve…noticed you. Before then. Since then. Now.”

 

“Why didn’t you  _ say _ anything?”

 

That got Duo a confused look. “I didn’t think it was relevant. How would mentioning my feelings for you change anything? I assumed it would make you uncomfortable and possibly affect our relationship. I…it won’t, will it?” The last sentence was worried, unsure.

 

“Well, uh, I think things would change or—I mean, I’d hope they did, if you liked me since I sort of maybe like you and was tearing my hair out feeling guilty over it, but if it’s mutual I feel  _ so much better _ .” Duo knew he was babbling and couldn’t bring himself to care. “But—Wufei?”

 

Heero shrugged and looked even more unhappy. “He is admirable and attractive, with qualities I’ve been noticing more and more, though nothing has made my feelings for you any less. He just seemed to…work his way in as well.”

 

“I—yeah.” Duo nodded. “That’s. I—I sort of maybe had that happen with the sessions. I mean, I had liked you and then you and Wufei together being, uh, really  _ really _ hot it just…clicked. And then I felt like shit, because god, both of you were so uncomfortable with the situation and did it for the mission training and then I was the bastard who thought it was hot.”

 

“You…find me attractive?”

 

“ _ Fuck _ yes.” It was a relief to say, after the the two weeks of living with Heero, especially since Wufei had been added to the mix. “You’re strong and steady, with your head screwed on right even if it developed different. And  _ no _ question about whether you’re physically fit, that’s for sure.” Duo paused, embarrassed. “Look, stop me if I’m making you uncomfortable. This is a lot to take in.”

 

“No, no it’s all right. I’m…processing. I never expected to…have any of this reciprocated.” He glanced at the door, then back at Duo. “But Wufei—“

 

Duo shrugged. “I don’t know either. I’m not mad at you for liking him too or all I’d be all sorts of a hypocrite. I guess it’s just that we’re all built weird. But there’s nothing wrong with it. You like him and I like him, but you also like me and I like you. Hell, it would work fine if…I guess if I had any idea in the world how Wufei thought.”

 

“He was married,” Heero said slowly. “He said that his memories weren’t all good ones, but that he chose to remember the good.” A tiny smile. “From his description, it sounds as if his wife was very similar to him, in personality. I…wonder how things would have gone, if it had been different for him.”

 

“Yeah,” Duo said. “I wonder how things would have gone for all of us, if things had been different.” His eyes widened. “Wait—he told you about her? How’d you get him to do that? What was her name? What was she like?”

 

“I was curious about it, and asked. He was kind enough to explain things to me, since I know very little about personal marriages. Details slipped out during the conversation. Not her name, however it seems that she was always challenging him to spar. She wanted to prove that women could fight just as well as men.”

 

Duo laughed at the image, then sobered as he thought more about it. “I wonder if that’s why he’s got such a prejudice. The whole “only the strong should fight” bit. She was insistent that she could fight just as well as he did, and then she died doing it. Wufei’s just a guy trying to protect all the girls. Huh.”

 

“Often people hide behind arrogance in order to protect themselves, but sometimes it is to protect others too.”

 

“Yeah.” Duo let out a breath. “S’nice that he mellowed a little with age though.”

 

They sat in silence for a minute or two before Heero had another question.

 

“Duo?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Would you…help me to learn more about relationships? What is acceptable or—what is okay to think? I don’t want to become like Bravewater. In any matter.”

 

“No worries about that, Heero. But sure. Hell, if you wanted to learn by  _ being _ in one…” he covered the option with a chuckle, to give Heero the option to take it as a joke. There was no way Duo wanted to force his opinion, but the twists in his stomach were hoping…

 

Heero looked genuinely surprised. “You would be willing to do that?”

 

Duo squashed the urge to sigh heavily and hit his head against something. “Heero, we like each other, we’re attracted to each other, we get along well, and we’re actually one of a very small group of people who are able to understand who the other is and why. If you’re not against it, I’d love to be in a relationship with you. At least to try it, and see if we can. I mean hey, considering how we talk and interact, one of the only steps left would be physical intimacy anyw—“ He stuttered to a halt mid-word,  realizing what he was saying right as he said it. And that took him off to  _ thinking _ about it and it wasn’t until Heero spoke again that Duo snapped back to reality.

 

“I take it you don’t care for that last step.” It was said without accusation, just the normal tone of Heero realizing something. “That is understandable, I—“

 

And that was it, Duo had had enough. He blanked, lept across the bed, and threw himself on top of Heero.  _ Who _ , Duo would remember later when he felt secure enough to actually tell the story,  **_didn’t_ ** _ punch me out I’m still amazed I got away with it. _

 

It was messy and awkward since neither had expected the move, but that was quickly amended, the second kiss still messy, less awkward, and with no less enthusiasm on both their parts. Duo pulled Heero forward to better learn his mouth and Heero went easily, content with Duo taking the lead. It was something that didn’t escape Duo and left him reeling even with the amazement of not being unconscious on the floor for leaping at the ex-Perfect Soldier without warning. This was all sorts of trust, and he really hoped he didn’t screw it up.

 

Then he stopped hoping, because he stopped thinking past appreciating the right here and now.

 

-

 

To say that Duo and Heero went downstairs relaxed was an understatement. The amount of tension they’d managed to release was pretty much out of calculation range.  Both just felt  _ better _ . Loose. Less worried about excruciating guilt.

 

They got started on making dinner in sync, each working quickly and efficiently, with little talking. Twenty minutes later dinner was done, and Duo was knocking on Wufei’s door to let him know while Heero finished setting the table.

 

Wufei could tell that something was up as soon as he entered the kitchen, and the calm he’d managed to attain through meditation while Heero and Duo had been busy upstairs left in a rush. He was even more on edge than before, it all being made worse when he couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t a question anymore—he was the problem. Was he just paranoid? Overreacting?

 

But something was different. He could tell. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was. It had barely been a week of living with the other two, but they all watched each other, observed things. If he thought there had been a change, there had undoubtedly been a change. And whatever it was, he was being left out of the loop.

 

He hid a sigh and just resigned himself. Some things were just private. Duo and Heero had developed a relationship that far transcended what he had with either of them, and he didn’t begrudge the two for it. Let them have whatever it was. It wasn’t his place to pry.

 

“Thank you for the meal,” was all he said to the two of them, before beginning to eat in silence.

 

Heero looked at Duo, who shook his head and shrugged before digging in himself. Heero ate on automatic, like he always did, his brain unoccupied in order to better observe his surroundings.

 

He watched Duo first. Observation was always important, and he had discovered early on in their fumblings through friendship that Duo was beautiful. He just…moved in a beautiful way, and that’s what Heero had noticed first. Duo was confident, self-assured, knew who he was, what he came from, and was proud of it. He walked with easy grace and did his work with precision. It wasn’t surprising that from there Heero started not noticing only the actions, but the body that performed them as well.

 

It had taken him time to realize that what he had been feeling was attraction. He’d chalked it up to the combination of admiring a talented, well-equipped comrade in arms and the fact that Duo was also his friend. Then he’d learned that friends were content with being friends and didn’t want more. He’d wanted more with Duo. He just hadn’t known what. 

 

Heero had had his encounters with physical intimacies in his life. Some of them had even been pleasant. But he’d never considered the equation of having such encounters with someone he was attracted to, and anyway, he hadn’t wanted to with Duo. He was worried that it might spoil things. 

 

So Heero had sat on his feelings, discoveries, curiosities and then…Wufei had happened. Wufei, who was so focused on his one goal during the war that he blocked out everything else, everyone else. But with the war over and given time, he’d allowed himself to breathe, if only minutely. Wufei kept himself as strong as ever, his pride still there, his sense of justice—a remarkable thing--still a driving force, if a slightly adapted one. It was this Wufei whose records he followed carefully, just as he followed the other pilots, this Wufei who’d shown up at their door a week into a mission, this Wufei he’d found himself…noticing, even as he observed the world with his normal scrutiny.

 

It hadn’t taken long for Heero to realize that the feelings he was developing towards Wufei were similar to those he was already harboring for Duo. That made things worse, especially after more research. Nothing, however, had affected him as badly as the training sessions. The proximity, the actions, reactions, it finally clicked, the wanting. And Duo was willing to show him. More than willing—he seemed to genuinely want Heero back. Heero was happier than he could ever remember being.

 

He just…he knew it was selfish, he just wished…

 

-

 

When they’d all finished eating, Wufei got up to clear the table. Heero and Duo had made dinner, so it was only right for him to clean up.

 

“You want any help?” Duo asked him.

 

Wufei shook his head. “I’m fine.” He didn’t particularly want to spend more time with Duo and Heero right now. Their conversation from before still hadn’t resolved anything, and that on top of this new development he didn’t know about…he just wanted to be alone to think.

 

Duo shrugged and gave Wufei a  weird look. “If you’re sure.”

 

“Perfectly, Maxwell. Go finish your week’s worth of homework.”

 

Heero came back into the kitchen. “Duo, your phone is ringing. Harvey’s calling.”

 

“What?” Duo’d gotten Harvey’s number on day one, and programmed a personal ringtone for him, but he’d yet to ever call after school hours. Duo glanced at Heero and Wufei. “Better answer it then—can’t keep him waiting. Come on guys, let’s see what he wants.”


End file.
